Dead for 3 Days and afterwards coming My Mothers seeming Death to Life again to the Admiration of all that saw her This was also a Custom among the Romans to keep the Body 7 Days unburyed Washing the Corpse every Day with hot Vinegar and sometimes with Oil that if the Body were only in a Slumber and not quite â—ead it might by these hot Causes be revived After being kept Seven-Days unburyed 't is my desire that my Body be conveyed in a decent Manner to where I desire Mr. shou'd Preach my Funeral Sermon for the Benefit of my surviving Friends The Custom of Preaching Funeral Sermons very Ancient This Custom of Preaching Funeral-Sermons is very old and of great use for Dr. Taylor tells us that antiently the Friends of the Dead used to make Funeral-Orations and the Custom descended but in the Channel of Time it mingled it self in the Veins of the Earth through which it passed And now a Days Men that Die are commended at a Price and the Measure of their Legacy is the degree of their Vertue But these things I 'd have nothing said of me at my Funeral but my Abhorrence of Covetousness and Backbiting ought not to be and therefore 't is my Desire that nothing be said of me so many are my Sins and Infirmities save my Abhorrence of Covetousness and of Backbiting as for Covetousness I ever thought it a Beggarly-Vice and I find 't is its own Tormentor For the Miser having all things yet has nothing And I 'm as great an Enemy to Backbiting not one Report in 40 is true and therefore in Cases of Slander I believe no Man's Eves nor Ears but my own If I find any Man Censorious I have done with him for 't is my way to judge of all Mens Religion by their Charity I observe that Prejudice and Mis-information has Murdered the Reputation of many Innocent Persons and for that Reason I never judge any Man unheard I never Judg any man unheard and those that do I think 'em worse than the Man they 'd Blacken as will appear by some late Instances which shall be mention'd in my Funeral Sermon or else be inserted in my History of those modern-Divines that have been branded with Crimes of which they have been wholly I 'm writing a History of those Modern Divines that have been branded with Crimes of which they have been wholly Innocent Innocent and as I 'll Publish nothing in this History but what I 'll prove So Grant Oh Lord that no Man may turn that to an occasion of uncharitableness towards me which I design'd for his good or was necessary for my own Neither let any Man Censure me for anything but what be sees in me and Lord thou knowest I have not the least Cause to be proud of that I speak not this as I value the Praises of any Man No! I wou'd willingly come again from the other World to give any one the Lye that reported me otherwise than I was tho' he did it to honour me And as I abominate Flattery so I as little fear the worst Enemies I have for tho' they may strike me in the Dark and then like a Serpent creep into their hole again for want of Courage to abet their Actions yet I challenge them all to prove black is my Eye with respect to I challenge my worst Enemies to prove me guilty of any immoral Practice UUomen A varice Drunkenness Injustice or any other immoral Practices not but that single Life I 'm forc'd to will make People the more Censorious and some that have been in the Oven will be raising Lies of me perhaps as well as of better Men but by the Grace of God I shall endeavour to live so as I may have a Conscience void of Offence both towards God and towards Man 'T is a comfort that Accusations make no Man a Criminal or if they Accusations make no man a Criminal did an innocent Life would make me easy under all Aspersions for they are generally rais'd by the leuder sort A Backbiting Tongue is a sure sign of a Whore-master I cou'd tell you of one that Stole his Wife the worst sort of Theft and of others that have had Bastards that have been the first in slandering A Backbiting Tongue is a sign of a whore-master their Neighbour and I observe that most Slanderes owe their rise to the fair Seâ— but this is none of their Fault but the Fault of the Men who make it their Sport to abuse that Vertue they can't Debauch Lampoons and Libels so much in Fashion in this witty Age are a ready way to murder any Most Slanders owe their rise to the FairSex Persons Reputation and indeed as a late Author observes The Nature of true Vertue is commonly such that as the Flame ever has its Smoke and the Body its Shadow so the Brightness of Vertue never shines but hath Disdain or Envy waiting upon it Some Men are so vile that when no merit of Fortune can make 'em hope Some men are so vile that when they can't enjoy the Bodies of those Beauties they are charm'd with will yet lye with their Reputations to enjoy the Bodies of those Beauties they are Charm'd with they will yet lie with their Reputations and make their Fames suffer And tho' to such Women Innocence is the safest Armour for just Heaven will ne'er for sake the Innocent yet this Ieud Revenge is a double Uillany for certainly UUomen are necessary Evils from our Cradle to our Grave we are wrapt in a Circle of Obligations to ' em my Divine Pylades was of this Opinion or had never sent so often to his Doctress And I am sure such a Mortal as I who am helpless at best and often so afllicted with the Store c. that I can neither go nor stand can't Live without their Assistance which if they are Uertuous they 'll never deny me for I 'm so great an Enemy to running astray that I heartily Women are necessary Evils wish Adultery were Death But whether does Covetousness and a Slandering Tongue lead me But they are two Uiâ—es that my Soul loaths as will be thewn to my Funeral Sermon so that my Zeal against them is the more excuseable After this Funeral Sermon or rather Sermon against Slandering is My Body next to be carryed to the New burying-place Preach'd 't is my request that my Body be carried to the New Buâ—ying Place there to lie in the same Grave with my first Wife and upon her Coffin if it can be found and 't is my Will that no others be Buryed with us save my Executor and that Dissenting Minister who is to Preach my Funeral Sermon For 〈◊〉 't is good to enjoy the Godly while they Live so 't is not amiss to be Buryed with them after Death The old Prophet's Bones escaped a Burning by being Buryed with the other Prophets and the
the Curiosity of our first Parents contracted and Transmitted to all their Posterity If living Incognito has taken away the Cause or the Effect you have Reason to rejoyce in your own Happiness and charitably to recommend it to others But tho Curiosity was never my Discease as is seen in the Picture I make of my Self and which perhaps I may send you hereafter I have had many of another sort I can reckon up Seven But by Living Incognito they are much lessen'd if not quite câ—ed I am willing to take your charitable Example discovering the Nature of the Diseases and their Remedies which I can give you more at large if you know any Persons they may be useful to I had a quality of repenting of every thing I did that answer'd not my Expectation but now I find to be happy one must repent of nothing but sin I was troubled with an Importunate desire of having all the Useless â—nd Impertinent things that are thought necessary for our comfort and â—upport in this Life but now I know there 's nothing can support and â—omfort us or is worth desiring but Gods Favour I us'd to have recourse in all my Disappointments to vain hopes â—nd when one design fell I raised another and still prop'd 'em up with â—pe which in the end I found so deceitful I now renounce 'em all â—d hope for nothing but Heaven I have been often Transported with Ioy at what happen'd to my â—lf and Friends supposing it for our good when the event has proved â—ite contrary This has shew'd me how weak our â—ight and Judgâ—ents are and to be sure to be in the right is to rejoyce in nothing but â—ods Glory I was much carried to the Love of Pleasure tho it never gave me â—ue Satisfaction I never found the Pleasure I proposed so certain as â—e pains that went to procuring it so that I found it surest to take â—leasure in nothing but the good success of ones Labour I have had very busie thoughts and been much taken up with studyâ—g ways of exalting my self and making a considerable figure in â—e World and now find by Experience they only are truly Consideâ—able that study nothing but the good of others My want of Courage has Subjected me to many vain fears which â—ade me uneasie but prevented no mischiefs But I perceive a deceitful â—eart the Source of all Evils that now I fear nothing but my own â—eceitful heart Thus you see what is got by Living Incognito 't is there one finds both Health and Pleasure I am Your c LETTER IV. Proving There is nothing New under the Sun Madam SInce you honour me so much to permit me to entertain you weekly or oftner with Accounts of what Progress I make in The Art of Living Incognito I shall be so free as to tell ye I suppose you expect that part of this Art shou'd be discoveries of something New For Nature is so much pleased with diversity as it seems a kind of Novelty that she hath imprinted a desire of it in all things here below This I proved in my Essay on the Athenian Itch which will never be quite cured till Men are possess'd There is nothing New for whilst there is they 'l be Itching after it Then seeing I told your Ladyship that my Art of Living Incognito wou'd consist of a Thousand uncommon which looks as if my meaning was NEW Subjects for fear you shou'd apprehend me in that sence 't is time now that I tell ye that by Uncommon I did not mean NEW but only Subjects that were Curious or very rarely handled No Madam it had been a great Presumption in me to have pretended to any thing New when Solomon tells us There is nothing NEW under the Sun a Eccl. 1. 9. And Dr. Winter adds Nor in the Moon neither a Picture of this Mutable World of whose encrease tho we have every Year NEW Ones a full dozen Yet all is but the Old One over and over Even that which we call the New Year is no more than the old one run out and turn'd up again like an hour glass to run out the same Spring Summer Autumn Winter Months and Days as before The Sun returneth every morning to the same place he came from with like form and self-same substance The Days and Nights pass by course and ever continue of like Essence The Fields are every year deek'd with the same Flowers like pleasant Herbs and the very same Accidents yearly Nothing is the Object of our Senses but what is ordinary and familiar We see nothing strange and New what we do to day that we do to morrow and every day What Men call a Discovery is a meer Banter upon our Understanding For my Lord Bacon in his Book of Aphorisms proves that which we call New and Upstart to be the truest Antiquity And the Sage Common-wealth of the Lycians heretofore ordained That all those who should propose any Novelty in matter of Law should deliver it in publick with an Halter about their Necks to the end that if their Propositions were not found to be good and profitable the Authors thereof should be strangled in the place The Antients held it ominous to pretend to any New Form even of Matters of Indifferency When Darius had altered the Fashion of his Sword which used to be Persian into the form of Macedonian in the year immediately before the fought with Alexander the Chaldees or South-sayers prophesied That into what Fashion Darius had altered his Sword so Time wou'd reduce his State and that the Persian Glory was drawing unto her last Period by subjecting her self unto the Soveraign of Macedon Which Prediction was soon confirm'd by the next years Conquest And as the Ancients held it ominous to pretend to any New Form so 't is as clear in the Instance I gave in the Sun Moon c. and other parts of the Creation That Thnigs here below seem NEW to many and are so miscall'd which in themselves are Old and known so to sounder Judgments 'T is true Mr. T tells us in his Treatise of Pre-existence that Philosophy it self had never been improved had it not been for NEW Opinions Nay the very Mob since the War with France are turn'd Athenians too and you can scarce meet a Porter in the Street but he 'll question ye What NEWS And some take as much pleasure to spread what they call News as others do to hear it R. B. in his book of Extraordinary Adventures tells us of a Barber who kept Shop at the end of the Suburbs call'd Pyreum in Athens he had no sooner heard of the great discomfiture of the Athenians in Sicily from a certain Slave fled from thence out of the Field but leaving his Shop at six and sevens he ran directly into the City to carry the Tydings fresh and new For fear some other might the Honour win And he too late or second shou'd come in Now upon reporting
you have given me that Libert and I think may be done without much difficulty if we consider when Solomon says there 's nothing new under the Sun he meant it only with respect to the Sinful and deprav'd Tempers and Inclinations of Men which would be always the same producing the same Mischiefs and Calamities in the World this Experience has abundantly confirm'd for instance the Fine Houses and Palaces every where Built with such Magnificent Pride to make themselves a Name is but the same design that set to Work the Builders of Babel nor do these find any New Success the Fate of their Posterity for all their great design is the same with those of Babel to be scatter'd abroad upon the Face of the Earth And before that when Men were distinguish'd and call'd the Sons of God because they began to call on the Name of the Lord yet when they saw the Daughters of the Men of the World that they were Fair they took 'em Wives of all whom they Chose which provoked God foreseeing the wickedness it wou'd engage 'em in and that the ' thoughts and Imaginations of their Hearts were only Evil continually to bring a deluge upon the Earth to destroy ' em Now the same Corruption of Nature works in this Generation they take those Women that please 'em and have no more regard then those of old to any thing else and one sees all the World over the sad and dreadful effects of the Evil Thoughts and Imaginations of their Hearts which will improve continually 'till the great Conslagration unless God in his Wisdom have prepar'd some other Cure for ' em And now that we find all our Cities abound in Wickedness we must not look for any new or strange cause of it 't is the same that caus'd the Sin of Sodom Pride fullness of Bread and abundance of Idleness was in her and in her Daughters says the Prophet Ezekiel So we see there 's nothing new in Sin or the Fruits and Effects of it nor any new Device for Building Happiness upon the weak and frail foundation of Corrupt Nature which Solomon at that time was Essaying to do and upon the fullest Tryal that ever was or could be made he pronounced that all the Experience he had goten served only to convince him that Happiness could never spring from Sinful Nature which never did nor ever could produce any thing but Vanity and Vexation of Spirit But I see not how Solomon in saying there was nothing New under the Sun could possibly extend it so far as to Arts and Sciences for there were some Generations pass'd as Scripture testifies before there were Harps and Organs or those that could handle 'em or any that could work in Brass and Iron 'till Lamech's two Wives brought him two Sons who instructed in those Arts and for the work of the Taber nacle God is said to inspire two Men with Wisdom Understanding and Knowledge to Devise cunning Works in Silver and Gold and Brass those things must needs have been New that were never known 'till thâ—t Generation and who could say there was nothing new with respect to Arts and Sciences with less reason then Solomon who sat himself upon a Throne of so new an Invention the Scripture affirming there was none like it in any Kingdom And that which is said to dispirit the Queen of Sheba was the wonderful Novelty she observed in the Oeconomy of that Great and Wise King who can't be thought after all this to deny that Arts and Sciences may be New else what must become of the Foundation the Port Royal has laid upon the supposit on of new Arts and Inventions to pâ—ove the existence of God and that the World is not Eternal They say and with great reason too there are some Inventions so beneficial to the World that 't is impossible that being once known they could ever be lost or laid aside as the Invention of Printing of the Sea Card Guns and Mills which for certain some Ages past the World was Ignorant of and therefore must be the new Iâ—ventions of later Ages and by this they prove the World it self was New some Thousand years since for had it been from Eternity things so obvious and easie must needs have been found out long before it binders not but that many things are thought New only for having been so long disus'd that they are out of remembrance and 't is Happy for us in some respect because thereby it gives us all that can be call'd Pleasure in the whole Universe for we see the defects of what we are throughly acquainted with but we are pleasingly deluded with great Expectations from every thing that 's New and I am sorry you should ever give the World so just an occasion to quarrel with you for taking away their Soul their Life their all yet if you can make good your promise and present 'em with new Subjects such as are curious and very rarely handled you 'll make 'em ample aménds for a thing so much beyond their expectation will be esteem'd equal to a Novelty and as to all those Projects and Inventions from which you have been so studious to take off the dear reputation of new that perhaps chiefly recommended them at first but since found so necessary for the gratifâ—ing of their sinful and depraved Appetites they are too considerable for you to blast yet are they the Fruits and Effects of Sin so nothing new according to Solomon but many things not new to all are so to those who are strangers to the World and have but little experience which iâ— my Case For Booksellers to turn Authors is News to me but no surprize 't is hard to think how they should forbear writing having fill'd their Heads with so much reading and of all Men they may best be allow'd to be Poets which is the readiest vent for abundance of thoughts so that 't were strange if Booksellers were not more learned then other Traders for they have all the Utensils of Learning about them living by Learning though 't is often seen it 's worth runs more into their Pockets then Heads however 't is certain that Men of this Profession have greater opportunities then others for improving their Understandings in Languages History Divinity c. The Book you mention I should once have thought it great Charity to disperse but now I think there 's little danger of the Papists making many Proselites any where I expect that Church should lose every day and not gain But what can be said to your retirement from so many advantages to a lonely Cell living Incognito in order to writing purely for your own Diversion If you have proved by many Examples 't is no new thing which should I grant you I can't allow it not a Jot to be wonder'd at for nothing can be more surprizing then such a sudden and unaccountable change as from having your Head and Fancy running to the farthest part of the