elevation up to the high Spring of Light and a continual Familiarity with God in fine an Immensity of Heart always fixed upon Heaven and yet always present to this Lower World in the exercise of its Courage and Bounty towards those who depend on him Can we then do less than own that where these are such a Man in a Country altho' one of the least rich and least befriended by Fortune is in spight of her the most happy and most amiable of Men All that she can give to Kings comes not into comparison with the value of what he possesses Pretiosior est cunctis opibus omnia quae desiderari possunt non valent sapientiae comparari It is not my design O Christian Soul to raise up your hopes to this high Pitch so much above your Reach measure your strength and know your self Wisdom has its different degrees and do you aim at that station to which God and your Conscience calls you All that I pretend here is to tell you That you that are not content with your present condition nor with that you have been in formerly if you will be but as wise as you may be by the Help and Grace of Almighty God which he offers you you shall find in what Station or Place soever you are your Quiet in it and your Happiness thus setled shall never more be overthrown by any Misfortune I do not say that Fortune shall then become favourable to you or that she shall not Attempt to do you Mischief I only say it shall not be in her power to Afflict you There is no question but that those Miseries which over-run whole Kingdoms may enter into your Country fall upon your Lands and enter your very House but never into your Self That part of the Immortal Soul where God has graved his Image and Wisdom stamped her Priviledge must be exempt from all those Prophanations to which the rest of Man is so much liable Grief Vexation and Impatience come not at that place but in the midst of Loss and Ruines Quiet shall never perish there no more than Innocence Let them weep and lament who know their Sins and the Imprudence of their Actions have brought upon them these ill Accidents Your Virtue which has kept you from being one in the number of the Faulty will keep you also from being one in the number of the Unhappy whilst such as they make Outcries of Despair and sink under the Storm you shall possess a perfect calm of Heart and will reckon it a better Condition and more honourable to have had no share in the Faults which may have brought Misery amongst your Family than to have a part in a good Fortune that should befal it meerly by Accident In a word Non contristabit Justum quidquid ei acciderit says Solomon No Accident that befals the wise and the just man can turn him from his right Byass and the doing of his Duty or so much as cause in him disorderly Motions There may be Tumult and Noise round about him but Peace shall never forsake him within And whilst he finds his Soul serene and quiet it will little concern him though his Aims be crossed or if he suffers in his Affairs Non contristabit quidquid ei acciderit But David says more and goes yet further let us not fear to follow Non accedet ad te Malum Flagellum non appropinquabit Tabernaculo tuo him in saying That if there be Wisdom in you the Goodness of God will not permit the Strokes of his Anger to come at you or so much as to threaten or approach your Habitation The greatest part of our Misfortunes and almost all of them befal us by the want of foresight That which happens to the Merchant who having left the Harbour indiscreetly and not foreseeing the Tempest perishes upon the Sea is common to almost all the afflicted that lament either the Overthrow of their Law-suits or their other Losses They lay the Fault both upon Heaven and Earth when the true cause is that they were blind and could not see the Disguises put on Truth by false-hearted Men nor the secret Turns of Fortune hid in the obscurity of the time to come Quia non cognovisti tempus saith the Gospel Whoever you be that relate your Mischances complaining bitterly of the cruelty of your Enemies of the deceit of your Flatterers or injustice of your Judges accuse not any thing but your own Ignorance and the small reach of your Thoughts which could not see beyond what appeared before your Eyes the discerning Thoughts of Wisdom go much further Observe that though it be said of the generality of Men that they are subject to Afflictions yet it is rarely said of the Wise Man who has a holy Modesty and Prudence There is a kind of Instinct in us which prompts us to believe that to be wise and happy are not two distinct Qualities in such a Person we are perswaded that he can never miss of Success because he bears in his Looks the Character of a Mind not to be deceived in the Events of what he Undertakes In Reality according to the Motto which Solomon does bestow upon him one of his Essential Properties Omnia improvisa didici is to know to day what will be to morrow and to prevent the Evil by his Care and Precaution which are enlightned from above He does not limit his Sight to the Countenances of Men he has a Light that goes further than the Eyes and shews him what lies most dark and hidden in their Hearts St. Peter says speaking of true Wisdom It is a Light created by God to shine in dark places Lucerna lucens in Caliginoso loco The Apostle means that as there are two Lights in this World appointed to discover to our mortal Eyes things material and visible one the Sun which shews them clearly by day the other the Moon which shews them also but yet obscurely in the absence of the Sun so are there two other Lights appointed for our Souls by which to see things spiritual and immaterial the first that Sun of Paradice termed the Light of Glory which will manifestly discover to us the infinite Greatness and Beauty of the King of kings and all whatever that is wonderful and incomprehensible in the Mysteries of the Trinity and of the Incarnation of the Word the second which is the lesser luminare minus the Light of Wisdom which has its Rise and Spring from the Bosom of God and is to enlighten us upon the Earth and to shew us obscurely yet certainly those Truths which are invisible and impenetrable to the blind Skill of vain Politicians and Philosophers Lucerna lucens in Caliginoso loco Enlightned by the Rays of this glorious and divine Star the Sages of all times have penetrated thro' the Clouds of Ignorance with which all Men are involved into the most profound Mysteries of the Gospel and into those of Grace
in his Body as if it were lodged in a Tomb all the Life he has is but the Life of a Beast and only a Shadow of Human Life To be Ignorant according to the Opinion of the Wise Man is to be a sort of Creature that spends a great deal of Time in passing on from his Birth to his Death without making a Step into Life Perierint quasi non fuerinty Nati quasi non Nati REFLECTIONS As Knowledge is one part of our Perfection so it is also one part of our Felicity Make your self then a Knowing person so far at least as you are obliged to be such by the Laws of Nature and of Religion and by those of Decence and Honour Of what Age soever you are at this present and let your Rank be what it will in the World it is necessary if you will hold the Rank of a Man of Worth that you be not ignorant either in Philosophy or in Christian Divinity You may know enough of both without putting your self to any great Trouble or Pains and without running after those Professors who make a Trade of teaching these Noble Sciences I do not advise you to go and study under them or to haunt teir Schools but I advise you to learn what you are to think of Eternity and by what Means you may avoid a Misery of that duration The Masters that are fittest to teach you these things have expected you for this long time at least there is no need of your going far to seek them you may find them wheresoever you are your self and near enough to you to speak privately to your Heart it is but entring within your self and you may hear what they will say Here follow some Reflections that will help you to know these Masters and to profit by their Discourses Mind then that you no sooner began to live but that you were obliged by the nature of your Birth to begin to know three Truths 1. That there is a God that gave you Life 2. That there is a Nothing from whence you came and a Death to which you are going 3. That there is a Jesus Christ who redeemed you and must give you a Resurrection At your coming into the World you have met with three Masters or three Voices ordained to teach you these three Lessons The Voice of Nature the Voice of Death and the Voice of the Gospel and Grace These are not three Discourses but three Subjects for your Meditation that I present you with In the first place I say That to make your self perfectly knowing in the Morals it will behove you to become the Disciple and Scholar of Death and to take Lessons from that Master Death does not speak but it has a Silence in which is summed up all the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles and that contains all those admirable Instructions they have left to aid you in leading a Good Life and to help you to solve well upon every occasion those Difficulties that shall be offer'd to you by your blinded Conscience All the Counsels of the Holy Fathers are in the Mouth of Death what makes the Wonder is that Death without speaking a word causes all those Counsels and Instructions to enter into your Heart and does this in such a way and with that Force and Energy which those Holy Fathers could never arrive at Death does this says Solomon every time she presents her self In ea finis Cunctorum admonetur hominum before your Eyes and as often as she invites you to the House where she is and shews you in the Face of a Dying Person the Sentence that Heaven has decreed against you That you must dye and be to morrow in the same Condition as you now behold this fick expiring Creature Testamentum hujus Mundi morte Morieris Solomon means that when Men dye certain pale Characters appear to be traced upon their Lips which every one can read and where they find these two words Hodie mihi Cras tibi The Prophet calls this their Will or Testament which Death writes for them and makes their Heirs with those others that encompass their Bed to see and be Witnesses to it All read it and all understand it You that are the Great Ones of the World have often read it and you have learned from thence says St. Gregory that the Inheritance which every one of your Ancestors has left you at the Moment of his Death has been the News that you must dye as he has done and that you and all the Riches Honours and Greatness you now enjoy must in a few days time return to what they have been heretofore to Dust to Ashes and to Nothing Pulvis es in pulverem Reverteris Of all the Forefathers you have had since the beginning of the World there has not been one amongst them that has missed the Signing of this Testament and the leaving you this Inheritance Such a Testament cries out Solomon as a Young Man enriched by the Rapine and unjust dealings of his Father needs but read with attention to become the holy and happy Heir of a Dives and damned Person Read then but observe that the great benefit of this Reading and of this contemplation does not consist in beholding what Death has shewn you but in remembring that you have seen it When She has shewn you in the low bottom of a Sepulchre whole Armies of Worms covering the Face you lately adored and that She has made you confess that this Rottenness was once your Idol the few Sillables she would have you imprint in your Mind which contain all her Instructions are Memento homo Remember Young-man what you have seen in this Tomb and what you have learnt there In truth to the learning of your Morals perfectly and how to live Wisely and Christianly it will conduce but little to look on dying and dead People There is not that Person does not go to see his Relations and Friends upon their Death-bed and who at that time does not think of the Affairs of another World and propose to himself Designs of Conversion and Repentance but then by the next Morning we find all these Thoughts blotted out of our Minds like Dreams and we know nothing of what we saw and what we designed Yesterday Indevotion Libertinism and Vanity have the same station in our Hearts as before and we begin again to live like Sinners that had not heard or known that any in the World had ever died O ye Mortals cries out Death it is not only in the Church whilst you are shedding Tears at the Funeral of your Brother who died Yesterday suddenly without one Word of Confession after an Impenitence for several Years that you are to study the Doctrine I teach but it is by remembring this miserable Exit Memento Keep in your Mind the Thought of this Death and cherish the Memory of it whatsoever Change of Fortune may befal you or in what part of the World
and Soul in the Filth of a scandalous Drunkenness to see him throw himself on the Ground and sleep in the face of Heaven can there be a more shameful Spectacle Let him be an Holofernes attended and worshipped by an Army of an Hundred thousand Men all this Attendance hinders him not in that condition from being a Horror to the Angels and being a Womans Victim who cuts off his Head and carries it safe away whilst Devils seize the Remains of that drunken Carcass Quasi Cadaver putridum illamentatus atque insepultus descendes in profundum laci This way of sleeping is certainly the most dismal thing that can happen to Man The King Sedecias having known that he was made the Sport of the Court of Babylon whilst he slept after this manner died through the displeasure he took at it Alexander Socrates Cato and other of those old Worthies have blushed at their being in such a condition before they came to be quite awake so much sense remaining with them in the midst of their Folly and they have wept in having hid it from the Eyes of the World to find they could not hide it from themselves I own besides that it is not a proper means to cause quiet and good Sleeps to have our Bed and Chamber too richly and voluptuously adorned what Rest can there be taken in the view of so great Debts or Couzenages or Pride How many dreadful Cries says Salvian are heard all night within the Conscience of that Man whose wretched Sleep costs so much Money and so many Sins Can he spend the hours any other way than in sadly thinking and in saying to himself Menses vacuos Noctes laboriosas Enumeravi mihi For these twenty years I have done nothing towards my Salvation my days have been days of Debauch of Impieties of Wrongs to the Poor my nights have been nights of Disquiet Torment and Despair Menses Vacuos Noctes laboriosas Think when you go to take your rest on this rich Bed of State that such was the Bed from which a Balthasar beheld the Hand of God writing on the Wall the Sentence of his Death and his Damnation signed in Heaven That the rich Glutton whilst he took the pleasure of seeing himself thus magnificently lodged heard a Voice whisper in his Ear telling him he was expected in another World and that he must dye within an hour Et haec quae Parasti Cujus erunt That an Antiochus instead of meeting here with that sweet Rest you seek found burning Flames kindled within his Bowels with Cholicks and Convulsions which have made him roar like one in Hell turning his stately Bed into a Scaffold where his interiour Executioners have torn him for several months till Death has come and pulled him out of their Hands to put him into infernal ones Mortuus est sepultus in inferno But I go beyond my Argument what I maintained is true That Sleep taking possession of you according to the Rules of Providence puts you into a condition that is not only necessary but honourable The Rules of this Providence are fitted to your Conveniency and Needs do you conform your self therefore exactly to them and accustom your self to follow as near as you can all its Commands and Counsels You desire that your Sleep may be sweet and peaceable Providence would have it so too and has chosen for it the night time do not you change this for the day and go not to Bed at Five a Clock in the morning when the Sun does rise It would not have you spend above seven or eight hours in sleeping do not employ ten or eleven in it but mind what the Physicians say That a Man who lies in Bed ten or eleven hours comes out of it ever less healthful and what the Casuists add Ever less innocent and pure than he went into it The Eye of God says St. Gregory abhors the sight of a Man in Bed at Noon And if ever you be found there so late he will send Solomon's Ghost to your Bed-side which pulling you by the Arm will repeat those words inspired long since into him on purpose to be said to the Sluggards of all times Vsque quo Piger dormies quando Consurges a Somno tua Paululum dormies paululum dormitabis paululum Conseres Manus ut dormias veniet tibi quasi Viator Egestas pauperies quasi vir Armatus Till when O Sloathful will you sleep have you not rubbed your Eyes and stretched your Arms sufficiently has not your Head been more than once raised and let fall again upon the Pillow asking a little time and yet a little longer and for a third about still a little longer time until that God's Malediction enters within your Walls follow'd by Disorder Libertinism and Poverty which will spare your Family as little as it has done such as have been richer than yours Pauperies quasi Vir Armatus This is not all what the same Providence recommends particularly to you to make your Sleeps sound and quiet is that you employ your self in the day time taking so much Pains about your Affairs as that you may find at night when the time comes of your going to Bed something of Weariness in your Body but in your Mind no manner of Disquiet no Sin in your Conscience nor any Disturbance from your Passions to hinder the rest prepared for you by the Divine Goodness Act so well as that your Designs your Undertakings Hopes and even your Joys as well as Griefs may be laid to sleep with you and lodge that quiet Silence in your Soul as may make it not be troubled by it self or any thing about it so that you may have cause to say at the time of shutting your Eyes In pace in idipsum dormiam requiescam quoniam tu domine Singulariter in spe Constituisti me The last and most important Rule is That your last Action before you sleep and the first after you wake must be to pray Be sure you fail not to begin and end this way each day you have to live and take often into your Mind this true Saying of the Holy Fathers That Sleep is the Figure of our Death and Waking the Figure of our Resurrection The last words of a dying Man are to recommend his Soul to God In Manus tuas Domine commendo animam meam the first when he rises again will be to pay his Adoration to God when stretching out his Arms towards his Maker he shall raise himself up to him by Acts of a perfect Love and Holiness Dormivi Somnum cepi exurrexi adhuc sum tecum This is the true method of the Devotion of Christians for each day of their Life Remember what I have said in another place That all times are proper for the exercising Acts of Holy Love since the God you love is near you at all times When the Sun goes away he is not gone says Solomon God is at
your Beds head in the silent beginning of the Night discoursing with your Mind by private Inspirations and helping you to rest holily through the sweetness of this interiour Conversation In the Morning he is also with you expecting to meet with an Expression from you of the Trust you repose in him such as may shew you deposite with him all your Cares of every day and whereas he fails not to be present before you at the moment of your waking fail not on your part to raise your Eyes and stretch your Arms out to him Anima mea desider avit te in Nocte sed Spiritu meo in praecordiis meis de mane vigilabo ad te O my Beloved said a holy Soul how innumerable have my Thoughts been of you this Night how many Sighs how many Tears have you cost me I ran after you through Desart places where it was all darkness De Mane Vigilabo ad te Question not my Beloved but that I love you since the first motion of my waking Heart tends to enquire whether I be so happy as to be beloved by you still this day and to learn that you are nearer me than I imagined by my Fears MAXIM XXI Non habet amaritudinem Conversatio illius nec taedium Convictus illius Sap. viii PARAPHRASE Such as converse familiarly with GOD learn how to converse well with Men their Hearts are free from peevishness and gall and their discourse in company proves neither tiresom nor offensive To become acceptable to Men it our daily Conversation we must follow the Rules that are to be observed for preventing our being displeasing to God in the interiour Discourses of our Thoughts REFLECTIONS Amongst all the Entertainments Nature has provided for us to give ease to the tediousness our Banishment during this mortal Life there is not any so decent and so pleasing as the meeting of Company to converse one with another This Inclination of mutually communicating our Thoughts was born in us with our immortal Soul they both derive themselves from the same origin that is they come from the Bosom of God the one and the other is framed according to the Pattern of what passes eternally amongst the three Persons of the Trinity Persons adorable and infinitely happy because their Society and Communication is eternal To converse with his Likeness is the Eternity of God the Life of an Angel and as for Man it is the cure of the Cares and Pains of his Mortality whilst he sojourns here below amongst Beasts One of our Priviledges and most glorious Elevations above them is that they cannot partake of this Benefit It is a sad thing nevertheless that amongst all the Customs divinely instituted this which both Nature and Grace has setled amongst us should be blacken'd with the greatest Faults and be the most shamefully abused of any No Man but knows how things go in this kind how numerous the Sins are that grow from unchaste and detracting Tongues and how many Tears these daily cause All our Misfortunes in a manner spring from this Fountain head You would know which way this may be remedied the Remedy has been asked and fought for during these many years but no one can boast of having found it out as yet and there is cause to fear it never will be found indeed we may well doubt it but yet we need not doubt withal but that each particular Person may acquit himself of all the Duties belonging to a Civil Life and frequent company when it ought to be done without injuring his Fidelity to God or the Obligation he lies under not to expose himself to the manifest danger of mortal Sin The Means which the Holy Scriptures and our Spiritual Guides propose for this are several I here present you with a short Collection of their Counsels and Instructions relating to this Subject 1. When you are invited says Solomon to go into such Company as will present you with Poison hid in the bottom of the most delicious Liquors and where you are sure to meet with the blackest Crimes mixed with the most inviting Pleasures that is when they go about to draw you into one of those Houses from whence you never faâ—l to return but more faulty and a greater Sinner than you went in whatsoever Reasons may be urged or Entreaties made or Violence used to you take heed you never yield resist and be constant in your resistance go not to seek for Pleasure and Sin where you must meet with Death and Hell Viae domus ejus penetrantes in interiora Montis Prov. vii 2. When you happen to be making other Visits in which you have been harmlesly engaged without the foresight of any hurt or danger if nevertheless there appears such says St. John the Evangelist as soon as any signs of it be shewn as soon as you hear any bold Blasphemy pronounced or words of high Impudence which scandalize you and terrifie your Conscience flye away without deliberation and suffer not the Health of your Soul to be longer exposed to so bad an Air in a place where amongst all that are about you laughing without controul there is not one perhaps but has the Plague and Sin lodged in his Heart Exite de illa populus meus ut ne participes sitis delictorum ejus de plagis eis non accipiatis Apoc. xviii 3. But if matters stand in that way as will not allow you to take your flight at least take the liberty to speak and declare your Mind boldly do like the Prophet Isaiah arm your Looks with the Zeal and Anger of a Seraphim put on a Forehead of Brass not to be daunted nor made ashamed and let your Temper shew a Courage without Pity In this posture present your self before these Libertines who neither regard God's Presence nor yours and by some generous Remonstrance that may set before their Eyes the Infamy of their Brutishness make them hide their Heads and Faces for shame Vt Videant sentiant urantur This was the way of the ancient Prophets and is still the way of such as are true Saints in the Church of the Son of God 4. But then in case you should find your Courage and Parts not sufficient for this Undertaking and that you should fear instead of confounding the Sinners they might scandalize the Company by turning Devotion into Ridicule Keep your Tongue silent says the Prophet but let your Eyes speak You must says he make these Atheists see in your Eyes and Looks a dreadful Sadness and Horror when they begin to open their Mouths and vomit up in the presence of Persons of Honour the Filth and Corruption that lies within their Souls Per tristitiam vultus corrigitur animus delinquentis Say not a word but be sad this way has had Success in the correcting of Sinners whom Noise and Dispute could never soften Imitate that generous Nun of St. Clare's Order who having heard some obscene Complements that were
Fidelity I owe to many Persons of worth who have built their Hopes upon my Word would call for Vengeance against me should I desist All the indispensable Laws of Necessity bind me to a Perseverance and to stand up with Courage against all Obstacles but my best Helps fail me my Money my Credit and Favour those other Advantages of which I had a prospect formerly have also disappear'd of late and such as I may expect will come approach with a very slow pace the worst of it is that in the mean while Time runs speedily on so that through the Delays which Accidents cause Death draws near and tells me tho' all the rest should not be wanting yet Time must fail me I hear methinks its Voice every moment like that of an Enemy at hand threatning to destroy with my self all my Designs and Hopes and lay us together in one Grave What can I do in this Condition You that Rule in Hearts O my God you that infuse into them whatsoever you please whose Hands hold the Keys of every Treasure and have Strength to stop the Current of Time notwithstanding its violence give me leave O my Lord to lift up my Eyes and lay open my Sorrows to you you cannot but see my Tears but then you see my Sins withal and yet your Mercy is not the less for that if I be an Ingrateful Wretch you are a GOD it is none of my intent to demand Miracles of you I only dare presume to pour out my Tears at your Feet and tell you with trembling poor Nothing as I am that your Pity asks of you great matters for me and that your powerful Hand can do all things True it is my dearest Lord as you inwardly tell me that perhaps the succeeding of this Enterprize may less conduce to the Good of my Neighbour and the Honour of your Name than my Patience and Resignation would do whilst you suffer Misfortune and Death to overthrow all my Designs and me to perish under the ruines of my Labours or else should I live and bear quietly the weight of my Ruine perhaps it would prove more pleasing to you than if I should pass my days in Happiness and Honour by the lucky accomplishment of what you put into my Mind It belongs to you O my God to determine which will please you best who know how I shall appear before your Eyes in either Condition but give me leave to say that you who like to see this humble Resignation in the Souls you cherish and have chosen do not condemn in them however the ardent Desires of effecting such Designs as they may hope will bring Glory to your Name You are pleased when they say amorously and sincerely I am ready for all do your Will with me my Religion and my Life are bent to adore the Decrees of your Wisdom I adore them and offer my self a Sacrifice to them but my God view my Heart and do not refuse to your Love the knowing my Inclinations and the hearkening after my Sighs Well my Divine Master I look without Terror upon the Destruction you propose of my Designs and me my whole Being adores your Providence and answers Non sicut ego Volo sed sicut tu but yet you forbid me not the Freedom no more than you did to Daniel to discover my Desires to you and to send out my Sighs in your presence I am a Nothing and less yet than so but nevertheless amidst this Nothingness wherein it is my due to place my self I have a Voice and Tears able to reach to the Sublimity where you are I call then and I weep trusting that you cannot behold the Tears which flow from my Eyes whichout having the Will to know their Meaning Shall I tell it you my God I weep to obtain Comfort from you for the weakest of all your Creatures to obtain that your Power may be glorified by granting me the Helps necessary for the accomplishment of that Work on which your Inspiration and Grace have put me I speak after the Example of Judith whose Resignation and Humility hinder'd her not from expressing her Desires to you Confirma me domine respice ad opera manuum mearum ut hoc quod Credens Cogitavi per te fieri posse perficiam In short the thing that would bring me an infinite deal of Comfort were That the Angels after having seen my Hearts submission to your Orders and been Witnesses that I am ready like Abraham to sacrifice to you what is most dear to me in the World and give up to your Will all my Desires though never so just and pleasing might have Right to say the same of me which they said to you heretofore speaking of David Desiderium animoe ejus tribuisti ei voluntate labiorum ejus non fraudasti eum I must confess O my God that you have no need of me to honour you either on Earth or in Heaven since you are able by a word speaking to produce millions of Angels and Seraphims and millions of new Worlds whereby you may receive more honour in one day than you can have from me during Eternity I do own it O Infinite Greatness and yet you that know all things O Adored Origin of all my Enterprizes and Eternal Center of my Peace and Affections you must needs know that amongst the accidental Joys of the Future Life the greatest and those which will touch us the nearest will be to see how our little Designs of this World here below undertaken and happily accomplished through your Benediction will prove an inexhaustible Spring from whence you will derive all the Glory that we are oblig'd to wish you Allow me then O my God to aspire after this Happiness and to beg that you will crown my weak Endeavours with that Success by which I may hope you will be eternally honoured for what is Time to me or Eternity itself unless I be something to you in it MAXIM XXIV Veni dilecte mi Egrediamur in agrum Commorremur in Villis Cant. vii PARAPHRASE Where there is such a Love amongst Men as that they cannot live with any ease asunder nor enjoy themselves without a mutual communication of their Thoughts it makes them usually call upon one another in these words Come let us leave the Town and retire together into the Country REFLECTIONS When a Man is placed on the great Theatre of this World by holding some honourable Employment in the Affairs of State or in those of Justice it is doubtless a Condition that affords some happy Moments tho' often but sad Days and never fails to give occasions of vexation After a Man has been sitting in some Court toiled with a Business that has lasted seven or eight hours his Body and his Mind quite spent with Weariness when he returns home in hope of getting a little Quiet what a thing it is for him to find waiting at his Gate a number of Supplicants who follow him into