he arriv'd at Paris the Third of October 1603. and in a convenient time afterwards he went to pay his Respects to the Bishop of Bologne who receiv'd him with great Civility and Kindness and repeated his Offer of that Preferment merely to have him near himself and more within the Eye of the Court. Monsieur Charron return'd him many Thanks for the Honour he had done him and the good Intentions he was pleas'd to entertain for his Advancement And with his usual Freedom told an Advocate in the Parliament who was a particular Friend of his that he could be well pleas'd to accept that Preferment for some Years but that the Moisture and Coldness of the Air and its Nearness to the Sea did not only make it a Melancholy and Unpleasant Place but very Unwholsome and Rheumatick and Foggy too That the Sun was his visible God as God was his invisible Sun and therefore since he had no Hope of seating himself at Bologne with Safety to his Health he thought it much better not to venture thither at all During his Stay at Paris he lodg'd at one Bertand's a Bookseller that he might be near the Press and correct the new Edition of his Books of Wisdom of which he liv'd to see but Three or Four Sheets wrought off For on Sunday the Sixteenth of Novembber 1603. going out of his Lodging about one of the Clock at the Corner of St. John Beanvais Street he call'd to his Servants and complain'd he found himself Ill And immediately while they ran to hold him up he sell upon his Knees and with his Hands and Eyes lifted up to Heaven he expired upon the Spot without the least Agony or Appearance of Pain His Disease was an Apoplex and the Quantity of extravasated Blood was so great that no Humane Help could have preserved him The Body was kept Two Days but the Physicians being well satisfied that he was actually dead and the Blood too which settled about his Throat beginning to mortifie and grow offensive they buried him with great Decency and a very Honourable Attendance in St. Hilary's Church the Eighteenth of the same Month where his Father Mother most of his Brothers and Sisters and a great many other Relations were Interred The Day of his Funeral he had his Face expos'd to view and his Body drest in the Priest's Habit as if he had been going to Officiate at Mass And this was done by a particular Direction of his own for he had frequently left those Orders in Charge provided his Death happen'd to be such as wrought no mighty Change or Deformity in his Person As to his Person He was of a moderate Stature inclining to Fat of a smiling Countenance and cheerful Humor a large open Fore-head streight Nose pretty large downwards light blue Eyes his Complexion Fresh and Ruddy his Hair and Beard very White though he had not yet got through his Climacterick being about Sixty Two Years and a Half when he died The Air of his Face was always Gay without the least Allay of Melancholy his Mien Graceful his Voice Strong and Distinct his Expression Masculine and Bold His Health Firm and Constant he had no Complaints either from Age or Indispositions till about Three Weaks before his Death Then indeed he now and then while he was in Motion felt a Pain in his Breast and found himself opprest with Shortness of Breath But this presently went off again after a little Rest and fetching his Breath deep However he acquainted his Physician the eminent Sieur Marscot with his Case who advised him by all means to open a Vein assuring him that all his Illness proceeded from fulness of Blood and if some Course were not taken speedily to prevent it a Suffocation might ensue And accordingly it happen'd for in all probability the neglecting this Advice of bleeding quickly was the very thing that cost Monsieur Charrou his Life His Books of Wisdom and Christian Discourses were printed off after his Death by the Particular Care of an Intimate Friend whom he had charged with the Inspection of them in hiâ— Life-time And abundant Satisfaction was given to the World that the Author himself had in this Impression added and corrected several Passages Some particularly which not Others only but Himself also thought necessary to be changed from that first Impression at Bourdeaux in 1601 By these Alterations he hath explained his Meaning strengthened his Arguments softned many Expressions without any Material Alteration of the Sense All which was done Principally in Compliance with the World to obviate the Malice of Some and condescend to the Infirmities of Others The whole had been perused and approved by some very good Friends and Persons of sound Judgment and till They had declar'd themselves satisfied and pleas'd he could not prevail with himself to be so But above all he submitted his Writings to the Church and hop'd there was nothing there that might call for a just Censure or Minister ground of Offence either to Religion in general or to that Communion of which he was a Member in particular As to his peculiar Manner of handling the Subjects he undertook to treat of whether in Books or Sermons he was us'd to say that there are Three Ways of expressing and communicating a Man's Thoughts which bear Proportion and seem to be adapted to the Three Several Faculties of the Mind the Imagination the Memory and Vnderstanding One of these proceeds upon Rules of Art runs upon Etymologies and Distinctions of Words and Things Definitions Divisions Subdivisions Causes Effects Accidents and the like A Second collects together what other People have thought or said upon the Occasion and values it self upon the nicety of quoting Books and Chapters and Pages The Third is free and generous including and doing in a manner all that both the former pretend to but without any Ostentation of doing so or enslaving it self to Niceties of Method and Rules of Art The First of These he used to say was sit for Schools and to instruct young Beginners The Second too much in Vogue with Preachers and Orators who in Effect only tack together other Peoples Notions and those too very often after an affected and impertinent Manner for having nothing to say for themselves they make other People speak for them though never so little to the Purpose In respect of this Way he declar'd himself of a Judgment directly opposite to the generality of the World That to stuff a Discourse with Quotations was an Argument rather of Weakness and Ignorance than of Wisdom That Men took this Course in all likelihood to set themselves and their great Reading off to the World which after all amounts to no more than a good Memory And This if not attended with Judgment is no such mighty Commendation That These things are oftentimes brought in at random and all Adventures picked up from Common-place Books and Indexes where they find Stuff ready made up to their Hands and so
that Observation made to Craesus which one of the Potes hath illustrated thus â‚ Scilicet ultima sempet Expectanda dies homini dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet Man must censured be by his Last Hour Whom truly we can never Happy call Before his Death and closing Funeral Sandys 'T is without all dispute a most Excellent Attainment to have learnt how to dye It is the Study of true Wisdom and that in which all its Rules Of knowing how to dye and all its Labours determine He that hath laid out his whole Life upon it hath put it to no ill use and He who among all the rest of his Qualifications is not Master of This hath thrown away all his Time and Pains to no manner of purpose That Man can never Live well who knows not how to Dye well and he hath lived to very good purpose who makes a happy End says Seneca A Man can no more govern and direct his Actions as he ought who does not keep Death in his Eye than an Archer can shoot well who never looks at the Mark. In one word The Art of Dying as becomes us is the Art of Liberty and an Easy Mind the way to get above all Fear and to live in perfect Happiness and Tranquility Without this there is no Pleasure in Life it is impossible indeed there should for who can enjoy That with Peace and Satisfaction which he esteems most valuable and dear and is tormented with perpetual anxious Fear of losing every Moment Now the First and Principal Step toward this is to make it our Care and constant Endeavour that our Vices may dye before us and then our next Care must be to live in constant Readiness and Expectation of dying our selves Who can express the happy Condition of that Man who hath husbanded his Talent and finished the Business of Life before Death approach to interrupt him So that when he comes to dye he hath nothing else to do but to dye no occasion to ask longer time no farther Business for this Body no need of any thing but can walk out of the World pleased and satisfied like a Guest after a full Meal All this I take to be comprehended in the Notion of our being always in a Readiness for Death There remains yet One Qualification more to be attained which is the being Willing as well as Ready for no Man dies well who goes out of the World with such Loathness and Reluctancy that it is mere matter of Constraint and plain he would fain but cannot stay here any longer The several Sentiments and Sorts of Behaviour which Men are capable of with regard to Death Five Sorts of Behaviour with regard to Death may in my Opinion be reduced to these Five that follow 1. They may Fear and Avoid it as the Last and greatest Evil. 2. They may expect and wait for it with great Easiness and Patience and Resignation of Mind as for a Thing which they look upon as Natural Unavoidable and not only Necessary but also Reasonable to be undergone 3. They may despise it as a Matter Indifferent and of no great Concern to them 4. They may wish for it pray for it make toward it as the only Safe Harbour which can give them Rest and Protection from the Troubles of This Life nay as that which will not only be a Deliverance but a Happiness a mighty Advantage as well as a perfect Security 5. They may bring it upon Themselves Now if we examine these Particulars the Second Third and Fourth will appear Commendable and Good the Thoughts and Resentments of a Virtuous and a Judicious Mind though it must be allowed that as they differ from each other so they are expected to move and affect the Man differently according to his present Circumstances For All of them are not commendable equally and at all times But for the First and Last they never are or can be so at all as being the Vicious Extremes of Weakness and Want of Virtue for how different soever the Effects may appear This is the same common Cause of them both I shall enlarge a little and try to illustrate each of these Particulars in this Chapter The First is what no understanding Person hath ever pretended to approve Fear of Death though indeed it be the Practice the Failing I ought to say of almost all the World And what can be a greater Reproach what a more undeniable Evidence of the Weakness of Mankind than that Every body in a manner should be guilty of That which No body dares undertake to defend But on the contrary against Those who labour under this painful Folly in Tenderness for Themselves or are thus concerned upon the account of Others we can never want Plenty of Arguments Among others These following Considerations may perhaps do something toward softning the Approach of our own Death or that of our Friends to us The effect of vain Opinion There is not in the World any Calamity which Mortals have such amazing Notions and live in such constant Terror of as Death and yet it is very evident there is nothing they call a Misfortune dreaded upon such Poor such Insignificant Grounds nay I must revoke those words Dreading and Misfortune too and dare venture to affirm there is not any thing which ought to be received with greater Satisfaction and a more resolved Mind So that we must be forced to confess in despight of all the Sophistry of Flesh and Blood to the contrary that This is a mere Vulgar Error Opinion hath charm'd and captivated all the World for Reason hath no hand at all in it We take it upon trust from the Ignorant and Unthinking Multitude and believe it a very great Evil because They tell us so but when Wisdom assures us that it is a Deliverance and sure Repose from all the Evils that can possibly befall us the only Haven where we can lye safely after the Waves and Storms of a Troublesome Tossing World we turn the deaf Ear and believe not one word she can say Thus much is certain Death when actually present never did any body hurt and none of those many Millions who have made the Experiment and now know what it is have made any Complaints of this nature concerning it If then Death must be called an Evil it hath this to say in its own Vindication That of all the Evils which are or ever were in the World This is the only one that does no body harm and in truth the mighty Dread of it proceeds merely from ghastly and monstrous Ideas which Men's vain Imaginations form of it at a distance There is nothing of Foundation or Reality at the bottom 't is all Opinion and Fancy nay 't is the very Instance in which Opinion pretends most to set up against Reason and attempts to fright us out of our Wits by shewing the hideous Vizor of Death For Reason to
fear it there can be none because we are so perfectly ignorant what it is How Unaccountable is our Concern how almost Impossible indeed for a Thing of which we have little or no Notion Upon which account He who had Apollo's Testimony for the Wisest Man living said that To fear Death was to pretend to be more knowing than one really was and a vain Affectation of Wisdom for it was to make the World believe a Man understands a thing which neither He nor any body else understands And we find that this was his real Sense by the Testimony his Practice gave to it For when his Friends importuned him to plead for his Life and justify himself against the Calumnies of his Accusers the Address he made upon that Occasion we are told was to this Effect Gentlemen If I should make it my request That you would not put me to Death I am under some apprehensions of asking a Punishment instead of a Favour and suing to my own Disadvantage For I must ingenuously confess I do not at all know what it is to Die nor what Good or Ill is consequent upon it They who fear Death must in reason presuppose some Notices of it for my own part I declare I have none nor can I tell at all either what sort of Passage that is which leads into the other World or how Matters stand there so that for ought I know to the contrary both the One and the Other the Condition and the Way to it may be exceeding Desirable and full of Felicity As for those things which I know to be Evil such as Injustice and Wrong I have the greatest abhorrence of them and avoid them with all possible Circumspection and Care But for such as I know nothing of I know as little how to Hate or to Fear them Now Death I own is one of These and therefore Gentlemen I leave the Matter wholly to You. For really I cannot be satisfied whether is best for me to Die or not to Die and therefore I hope you will Order what is really best and I am perfectly content you should determine and dispose of me as you think fit And why this mighty Trouble and Concern upon the account of Death Of Weakness This in the First Place is most despicable Weakness and scandalous Cowardice The merest Woman the most tender-hearted Wretch alive can Compose her self in a few Days and put an End to the justest Passion for the Loss of a Husband or a Child and what a Disparagement is it to Reason and Wisdom that They should not effect that presently which in a little while will do itself The most Ignorant and poor Spirited Man alive can do it with the help of Time And why should not a Wise and Brave Man do it without that Advantage For what is Wisdom and Resolution and Gallantry of Soul good for or how shall we distinguish it if it do not quicken a Man's pace and render him more expert and dextrous so that he shall be able to do Greater things and to dispatch them with greater ease and speed than Others who are destitute of these Accomplishments From the same Weakness and Irresolution it is that the Generality of Dying Men are never sensible of their last Hours but still flatter themselves with Expectations of perfect Recovery or longer Delay at least and perhaps there is no one passage of our Lives comparable to this part for Cheat and Delusion none that equally sooths and amuses us with vain hopes Not that I ascribe this wholly to Weakness neither for possibly Vanity may contribute a great deal toward it We look upon our Death as a matter of mighty Consequence a strange and most important Revolution in which the whole World is concerned and can scarce be brought to imagine that Providence will permit a Calamity in which all Nature must suffer and this orderly and Beautiful System of the Universe End and Perish So extravagant are the Notions we entertain of our Selves and of the importance we are of to God and the World Besides all this Of Injustice such a Man is evidently guilty of Injustice For if Death be really a Good and a Desirable thing Wherefore are we afraid of it And if it be otherwise Why do we make it worse This is to aggravate and multiply upon our selves the very Thing we pretend most to be afraid of and to create new Pains and Torments which Death knows nothing of nor would ever bring upon us This is a â—ool-hardy Madness like his who when an Enemy had Robbed him of one part of his Goods threw the rest into the Sea to shew how little he valued the Injury his Plunderer had done him Lastly 'T is prejudicial to Life To Live in fear of Death is the greatest Injury a Man can be guilty of to Himself the spightfullest way of destroying his own Life For no Man who hath this Dread perpetually upon him can ever have any tolerable Enjoyment of himself or the World He only lives truly free and at ease who is got above the Fears of Death And on the other hand Life were no better than perpetual Slavery if the Liberty of Dying were taken away Death is in effect the only Foundation and Support of all the Freedom we can make any Pretensions to The sure and common Retreat from all our Sufferings and Hardships A Man therefore must needs be very wretched and uneasy and yet thus wretched are almost all Mankind who takes off the Quiet and Enjoyment of Life by an anxious Concern and Fear to dye and loses all the Benefit of Death too by an immoderate Fondness and afflicting Solicitude for Life And yet as full of Discontent as People generally are with the present Order and Constitution of Things what loud Complaints what Eternal Murmurings may we very reasonably suppose would have filled their Mouths if it had been otherwise How would Nature and Providence have been cursed condemned and blasphemed if Men had been under a fatal Necessity of dwelling always here whether they would or no and no such kind Relief as Death is had been provided for them Think with your self how much more Insupportable how much more Grievous and Burdensome a Life must needs be without any Period assigned for it than that Life we now lead which is attended with a Necessity of leaving it but of laying down the Load that oppresses us along with it too To this purpose it is that the Poets tell us Chiron refused to be Immortal when it was proffered him upon receiving Information from the God of Time his Father Saturn what hard Conditions the Gift was clogged with On the other hand What would become of the World if there were not something of Pain and Bitterness which should discourage us and create in us some Aversion to Dying There is no doubt to be made but were it not for this Check upon our Nature Men would run out of the World
Virtue Great Parts and Attainments and Old Age very seldom meet together But the solid Comfort is that the true Estimate of Life is to be taken from its Use and End and if it be well employed and well finished all the rest hath its due proportion Years are good for nothing but to make a larger Sum nor does the Number of them contribute one whit to the rendring Life more or less Happy more or less Desirable But the shortest Term is capable of Virtue and Felicity and hath its proper Perfections which are no more increased by Quantity than the Largeness of the Circumference makes the Perfection of a Circle The Least Round is as truly so as the Greatest and as the Figure in Lines so the Quality and Manner in Life does all A Man of small Limbs and Low Stature is as truly a Man as the Tallest Giant that ever Story described and to be short neither Men nor their Lives are to be Estimated by their Bulk and Length but by having All their Parts entire and every Qualisication requisite or possible to the Condition of their Nature Another could be well enough content to Die but to do this in a remote Country at a distance from all his Relations to be cut off with a Violent Death and have his Carkass lie Unburied and stink above ground This is what he cannot bear and sure every body must allow such a Death to have a world of Horror in it in comparison of that gentle and easy Passage which Those have who dye in Peace and Quietness by the slow and gradual Decays of Age or such as we call dying a Natural Death at least decently and in their Beds with their Relations and Friends about them taking and giving the Last solemn Ceremonies of Parting Comforting Those they leave behind and receiving Support and Assistance and Consolation from them Now how Reasonable or Natural soever these Notions may seem 't is evident all Mankind are not of the same Opinion How many Brave Men do we see every day who follow the Wars and contend for the Post of Honour in the Engagement without any of these tender Thoughts They put themselves in the way of Dying when Life and Vigour are at their highest pitch they go into a Foreign Land for Graves and think the Heaps of Slain and the Throng of Fallen Enemies the noblest Monument so far are They from grieving that They cannot Lie among their Family and their Friends And as for the Terrors of a Violent Death they are exceeding Childish and Vain and would easily be cured could we prevail with our Selves to see Things as they are For as little Children Cry and Tremble at Men in Vizors but are presently quiet and lay aside their Fears assoon as you uncover their Faces so it is here Remember then Man That Fire and Sword and all other Instruments of Violence and Casualties and surprizing Aggravations of this kind are only the hideous Disguise of Death a Vizor put on to affright us but all this Effect is owing to the dismal Idea's we form to our Selves for take but off this Mask and you will sind that Death is always one and the same And he who Dyes in Battel or is Burnt in his Bed he that falls in an instant by the hand of an Executioner and he that Expires upon a Rack meet all in the self-same State though they do not come to it the same way and dye the very Death that Women and Children and all that seem to us to Depart in the Easiest Gentlest and most Peaceable manner Dye The Difference lies only in the Pomp and Noise the Preparation and Prefacing of Death but let the Ceremonies be what they will in the Substance and Thing it self there neither is nor can be any Difference at all Another sore Grievance is their Concern to leave the World But what occasion of Grief is there in This Alas here is nothing new all your Curiosity hath been satisfied over and over and You have seen all that is to be seen already Each Day is equal and exactly alike to every other Day Four and twenty Hours brings the World round the same Succession of Light and Darkness There is no fresh Sun to be Lighted up nor any other Course or Revolution than what Nature hath Travelled in from the very Beginning But put the longest Period the thing can bear and One Year is sure to present you with all the Vicissitudes In the Change of these Seasons you see the several Stages of the World and your own Life The Sprightliness of Infancy and a new Born Universe in the Spring The Gay and Chearful Youth of Summer The Maturity and Manhood of Autumn and the Decrepit Age the Decays and Deformity of a dying World in Winter All the Trick is to play this Farce over again and begin where this time Twelvemonth we left off So that they who Live longer do not see any more Objects than Others but only more of the same Objects oftener repeated to them But Friends and Relations are very dear to us and it is a hard thing to part with These Never fear Man thou wilt find a great many of thy Family and Acquaintance in the Place whither thou art going Thou art rather parted from thy Friends here at present for the Number of Those thou leavest behind is not comparable to Those thou wilt meet in another World Thy Acquaintance will be infinitely increased and abundance of thy Kindred are there whom yet thou hast never seen All who were too Little or too Great too Remote or too much before thy Time to be known and taken notice of here And as for Those whose Correspondence is sweet and valuable now remember that the Separation is like to be very short for They too are Travelling the same Road and follow Thee apace to thy Journies End Oh! but a Man hath a Family of Dear Pretty Children and what will become of These poor Orphans What a World of Difficulties must all this sweet Innocence struggle with How will They be Exposed for want of a Parent 's Care What a Prey will They be made if They have Fortunes And if They have none How will They be Supported or where will They find the Kindness of Inspection and Good Advice For They who are Destitute of a Competence and stand most in need of Friends are least likely to have Their Assistance This is surely a very cutting Consideration a natural Anxiety and a necessary Consequence of those Tender Regards though due to a Man's Posterity But hark you my Friend consider again whose Children These are Are They not God's as well as Yours Nay Are They not His a great deal more than Yours He hath an Original Right in them He is Their True Their First Father You are only so in a subordinate Sense as One who by his Permission were an Instrumental Cause of Their Being He is able to Provide for his own Family
never fear it All Your Care without His Blessing is Vain and of no Significance while you Live but though His Assistance be necessary to You Yours is not in any degree so to Him He will feel no Difficulty at all in Sustaining These Orphans when You are taken from Them Every Condition and all Times are equal to Omnipotence And if You cannot question His Power Have You any pretence to doubt His Disposition You have daily Experience of This They Subsist by His Bounty even now His Bowels are not less Tender than Yours and as He is more truly and properly so is he a more Infinitely more Affectionate Father to Them than Your self are It is most absurd to think that You can either Do or Wish better for Them than He. Nay if upon any other Consideration such an Imagination could be endured yet even common Experience contradicts it Do but observe the Circumstances of such as seem to be left entirely upon Providence destitute of all Human Advantages and you shall sind more thriving Men in the World more that have been raised to great Honours and eminent Posts and plentiful Fortunes who have had nothing but His Favour and their Own Industry to depend upon than Others who begun upon good Funds and thought They might reasonably promise Themselves much greater Success So particularly so visibly is He the Father of the Fatherless But it may be you are afraid to venture into this dark Place all alone Never trouble your self you need not fear a Solitary Journey That Road is always very full of Company There are abundance of Men that Dye when you do nay more than you can imagine set out the very same Hour with You. To be short You are going to a place where you shall be sure never to grudge at the Loss of this Life For what room what pretence can there be for any such Discontent If a Man who hath felt all the Troubles of Life had it in his Choice whether he would live the same over again without all Controversy he would refuse it And if before one is first called into Being he could See and Know what he is going about he would rather chuse to sleep still in Non-entity * Vitam nemo acciperet si daretur Scientibus Were People throughly acquainted with the Conditions and Incumbrances of Living no body says a Wise-man would accept Life upon those Terms What ground of Dissatisfaction then can occur to Them who have felt and suffered under These What Temptation can They have to wish a Second Torment or to repine that Their First was not of a longer Continuance The Old Philosophers fixed upon this Argument for Comfort and thought it an irrefragable one Either we are Nothing at all after Death or we are in a much better State than at Present and Either way we have Reason to be well Content to Dye because Either way Death puts an End to all our Suffering and Pain There is I confess a great Alteration in the Case when we come to consider the matter as Christians because thus we are assured that there is a State infinitely Worse than the most exquisite and most durable Miseries of this Life But then This is what we have fair warning of and may avoid if we please A Christian who Lives as he ought is better fortified with Arguments against the Fear of Death than any Other Person can be And They who will not Live so have no reason to repine for even thus the shorter the Life the less Measure of Their Iniquities and the Damn'd Themselves would not wish to Live again but upon a supposition that they should Live better than before But be that State to which Death turns such Men over never so dreadful yet since this is a Misery of their own making it comes not within the compass of our present Argument which only undertakes to shew That Death hath nothing formidable so far as Nature and Providence are concerned in it And That comes to thus much and no more You came out of Death that is out of a State of Insensibility into Life a Scene of Business and Action and this you did without any Horror or Passion or the least Disorder You are now going back again into the Former Condition of Sleep and Inactivity Travel then the way you came with the same unconcernedness you did before For after all * Reverti unde veneris quid grave est What mighty Calamity can it be to return from whence you came and where you lay hid for many Ages It may be the Gastliness of Death affrights you because Dying Persons make but a very ill Figure 'T is true You see their Countenance discomposed their Features distorted with Convulsions and all their Body struggling and labouring under Agonies and Pains But all This is only that ugly Vizor which as I said before Death puts on to scare us it is not Death it self in its own Natural Visage for That hath nothing of Horror or Deformity but is all Quietness and Composure We send our Senses and Passions out to discover this unknown Land and They like cowardly Spies bring us an ill Report of the Countrey They never penetrated far enough to get true Intelligence they speak nothing of their own Knowledge but make a Report only from the common Rumour of Ignorant People and their own Fears But it snatches so many things away from Us or rather it takes us away from Them nay takes us away from our Selves removes us from all that we have been so long acquainted with and accustomed to and puts us in a State of Darkness and Horror such as we have no knowledge of and from this Condition of Light shuts us up in Eternal Night In a word It is our End the Ruin the Dissolution of our Persons These are the cutting Considerations which Men aggravate to Themselves and magnify the terrible Ideas To all which we may return a sufficient Answer in one word by saying That Death being the necessary Law and Condition of Human Nature from which there is no possibility of an Escape as will be shewn hereafter it is to no purpose to dispute or create these Uneasinesses to our own Minds and wretchedly foolish to torment our selves with Fears of a Thing which there is no getting quit of Things that are doubtful and contingent may be a proper Object of Fear but for those that are fixed and irreversible we have nothing to do but to sit down and expect and prepare to meet them But waving That I rather chuse to observe at present how extremely mistaken these Men are in their Account For the Matter is in very Truth the direct Reverse of all the terrible Representations these Persons form to themselves For Death instead of taking away from us all that is valuable and dear puts into our Possession all we are capable of receiving Instead of taking us from our Selves it enlarges us from our Confinement
and restores our Souls to perfect Liberty and true Enjoyment Instead of locking us up in the dark it sets us in the clearest and brightest Light and serves us as we use to deal by the best Fruits when we take off the Skin or Shell or other Covering that so we may see and use them and taste their Natural Excellence It removes us out of a streight inconvenient Dwelling from a Dark and Rheumatick and Diseased Place where we can see but a very little Spot of Heaven and only receive Light by Reflection and at a vast distance through Two little Holes of our Eyes into a Region of absolute Liberty confirmed and uninterrupted Health perpetual and incessant Light a Sun that never sets and Endless Day without any gloomy Intervals * Aequaliter tibi splendebit omne Coeli latus Totam lucem suo loco prope totus aspicies quam nunc per angustissimas ocuâ—orum Vias procul intueris miraris A Place where our Faculties shall be enlarged and all Heaven will display it self to us where we shall not only see Light but dwell with it in its own proper Sphere In a word It delivers us from the very Thing we dread most by making us Immortal and putting a sinal and full Conclusion to that Death which took place from the Instant we came into the World and was finished at our Passage into Eternity †Dies iste quem tanquam extremum reformidas aeterni natalis est For the Day we have such dreadful Apprehensions of as if it were to be our Last is really our First the joyful Birthday into a Life which can never have an End We come now to consider the Second Sort of Resentment which Men are affected with upon the account of Death which is Waiting for and entertaining it with contented and chearful Minds when it comes This is indeed the Quality of a Good a Gentle and well-governed Spirit and the Practice of it is peculiar to a plain easy way of living and to Persons who as they make the best of Life and enjoy the Quiet of it so know very well how to esteem it as it deserves but still they make Reason the Standard of all their Affections and Actions and as they are well satisfied to stay here so they readily obey when Providence thinks fit to call them out of the World This is a Medium very justly tempered a Masterly Greatness of Soul and such an Indifference to all here below as a Life of Retirement and Peace seems best qualified for and the Two Extremes between which it lies are Desiring and Dreading Courting and Running away from Death accoring to that of the Poet * Summum nec metuas diem nec optes With Courage firm and Soul sedate Attend the Motions of thy Fate And whether Death be far or near Live free from eager Wish and anxious Fear Now these Extremes except there be some very particular and uncommon Reason to give them countenance are both of them Vicious and exceeding blameable and when I come hereafter to speak of this Matter in its proper place you will see that nothing less than a very extraordinary Cause can render them so much as excusable To desire and pursue Death is very criminal for it is very unjust to throw away one's Life without a sufficient Reason it is spightful to the World and injurious to our Friends to grudge them the longer Use and Continuance of a thing which may be serviceable to them It is the blackest Ingratitude to God and Nature thus to slight and throw back again the best and most valuable Present they can make us as if it were a Trifle or a Burden not worth our keeping It savours too much of Peevishness and Pride and shews us humoursome and difficult when we cannot be easy and bear the Lot that falls to our share but will needs quit our hands of the Station God hath called us to when there is nothing extraordinary to render it cumbersome And on the other hand to fear and flee Death when summoned to it is an Offence against Nature Justice Reason and every Branch of our Duty since Dying is Natural Necessary and Unavoidable Reasonable and Just First It is Natural Dying is Natural it is a part of that Great Scheme by which the Order of the Universe is established and maintained and the whole World lives and subsists And who are We that all this Regularity should be broken and a new System contrived in Our Favour Death is really one of the Principal and most Material Articles in the Constitution and Administration of this vast Republick and of infinite Use and Advantage it is for determining the Continuance and promoting a Constant Succession of the Works of Nature The Failure of Life in One Instance propagates it afresh in a Thousand others * Sic Rerum Summa novatur Thus Life and Death successive keep their round Things dye to live and by decays abound But which comes nearer home Death is not only a part of this Great Complex and Universal Nature but of thy Own Nature in particular and That every whit as essential a part as that Birth which gave Thee Life So that in cherishing an Aversion and running away from This thou attemptest to flee from thy own self Thy Being is divided equally between Death and Life These are the Two Proprietors and each claims a share and hath an indefeasible Right in every one of us These are the Terms upon which Thou wer't created and Life was given with a Purpose and upon Condition of being taken away rather indeed it was only lent and like all other Trusts or Debts must be demanded back and may be called in at pleasure If then the Thoughts of Dying discontent Thee consider that the Hardship does not lye here but carry thy Reflections higher and be concerned that ever thou wast born For either there is no cause of Repining in either case or else the Ground of all the Complaint lies in having lived at all You had Neighbours Fare and purchased Life at the Market Price which is The laying it down again no body hath it cheaper and therefore they who do not like the Bargain and are loth to go out again should have refused at first and never come into the World at all But this is what Men were they capable of such a Choice would never do if their Fondness of Life be so excessively great The First Breath you drew bound you fast and all the Advances you made toward a more perfect Life were so many Steps toward Death at the same time †Nascentes morimur finisque ab origine pendet Asson as born we dye and our Live's End Upon its first Beginning does depend Manil. Ast 4. To be concerned then that we must Dye is to be concerned that we are Men for every one that is so is Mortal And upon the strength of this Impression it
and Perseverance All the Free and Bold Determinations by which Virtue hath expressed her self the Noble and Admired Sentences uttered by Celebrated Persons when reduced to extremity of Danger and Distress Such as shine in Story give lasting Characters to their Authors and transport the Reader with Wonder and Delight a very few of which because they now occur to my Mind I take the Liberty to insert here Helvidius Priscus having received a Message from the Emperor Vespasian not to appear in the Senate or if he came strictly prohibiting him to interpose his Opinion in a Debate which was to be moved there sent back word That his Character of a Senator required his Attendance and he should not refuse his Summons neither should he when There balk any thing that became him but if called upon to give his Judgment would discharge his Conscience and deliver his Sense of the Case freely and without Fear or Reserve The Emperor provoked with what he thought Insolence in this Reply sent a Second Message threatning to put him to Death if he opened his Mouth To which he returned thus Sir said he Did I ever tell the Emperor that I was Immortal His Majesty I suppose will do his Pleasure and I will take care to do my Duty It is in His Power to put me to Death Unjustly but it is in my Own to Dye Virtuously and Gallantly The Lacedemonians when Philip of Macedon Father of Alexander the Great had entred their Country with his Army received a terrible Message from him Threatning what Severity he would use them with if they did not court his Friendship and send to make Terms with him To which one Brisk Fellow Answered in behalf of the whole Republick What Harm can those Men suffer who are not afraid of Death And upon another Dispatch from Philip telling them That he would break all their Measures and prevent the Designs they had formed in their own Defence The Answer was How Sir what break all our Measures No Sure you will not pretend to hinder us from Dying This is a Project which you cannot Defeat Another when his Opinion was asked What course a Man could take to live Free and Easy resolved the Doubt thus That all other Methods were ineffectual except that One of Despising Death We read of a Young Boy who was taken Captive and Sold for a Slave and in Discourse with his Patron who had Bought him Sir says he You shall now see what a purchase you have I should certainly be much to blame and guilty of great Folly should I submit to Live in Slavery when my Liberty is in my own Disposal and I can retrieve it when I please And with that he threw Himself down from the House top and was dashed to pieces While a Person was deliberating with himself in deep perplexity of Thought whether he should quit this Life or not accept that Deliverance but be content to tug on still under the weight of a very heavy Calamity which then oppressed him A Wise Man told him That in His Judgment the Matter under Debate was very small and inconsiderable For What is it says he to Live Thy Slaves nay thy Beasts and Cattel Live but to Dye like a Man of Honour and Integrity and Wisdom to leave the World with remarkable Constancy and Courage This indeed is a thing of moment and worth Studying for To conclude this Argument and to crown it with the most complete and substantial Consideration that can possibly belong to it Our most Holy Religion owes more of its Success in the World and more of its Effect upon Men's Hearts and Lives to this single Principle of getting above the Fear of Death than to any other Human Foundation whatsoever No Man can be an excellently Good Christian who is not Resolute and Brave and upon this Account we find that our Great Master who best understood the Temper of his own Gospel does insist upon taking up the Cross Hating and Despising Life for his sake not Fearing Men who can only destroy the Body and the like which are but other Expressions for the Contempt of Death These he insists upon I say as frequently as earnestly as upon any other Duty or Article of Religion whatsoever Now we must understand That there are many Counterfeits and False Pretences to Bravery upon this Occasion a great many People who look big upon the matter and would fain persuade the World nay perhaps are persuaded Themselves That they Despise Death and yet are in truth afraid of it Thus several People will tell you They do not value Life They would be content nay glad to leave the World but the Ceremony and Process of Dying is what They cannot away with Others again while in perfect soundness of Health and Judgment can think of Death without any Impressions of Horror nay have as They imagine settled their Minds so as to bear the Shock of it Firm and Unmoved and Some have gone farther yet and resolved to make it their Choice their own Act and Deed. This is a Farce very often played insomuch that the Soft the Luxurious Heliogabalus himself had a Part in it and made Sumptuous Preparations that his Death might be as Pompous and Expensive as his Life had been But when These Mighty Men of Valour have come to the Push their Hearts have failed and either Courage was wanting to give the Blow or they have repented of such Hardiness for Rash Heat and Folly as Lucius Domitius particularly who after he had Poysoned himself was sorry for what he had done and would fain have Lived when it was too late Others turn away their Heads draw their Cap over their Eyes and dare not look Death in the Face They think of it as little as they can steal upon it and plunge in all on the sudden They swallow it down like unpalatable Physick and hasten to get to the End of that bitter Potion which goes against their Stomach To this purpose is that saying of Caesar That the Shortest Death is the Best and that of Pliny That a Sudden and Speedy Dispatch is the greatest good Fortune that can happen to Man in this Stateof Mortality Now no Man can truly be said to have Resolution and Courage such as is above the Fear of Death who is afraid of facing and coming up to it who dares not meet and undergo it with his Eyes open and his Thoughts and Senses about him Thus we know several have done and therefore this is no Romantick Excellence above the Power or Capacity of Human Nature Thus did Socrates particularly who had Thirty days time to chew the Cud and digest the Sentence pronounced against him and yet after all this Foresight and Consideration Dyed without the least Disorder or Passion without any Change in Countenance or Temper without any struggle or sign of Reluctancy in the most Calm Composed Chearful manner that you at any other time can suppose a Man in Thus
will be sure to stand its ground Distress and Pain are so far from making it flinch that they feed and cherish and exalt it it lives it grows it triumphs by them There is certainly greater Firmness of Mind express'd in bearing and making an Advantage of one's Chain than in breaking it to pieces because it keeps us confined and ties us fast to some Uneasinesses And all considerate Men must allow that Regulus shew'd infinitely more Gallantry than Cato * Rebus in Adversis facile est contemnere Vitam Fortiter Ille facit qui Miser esse potest Martial Lib. xi Ep. 57. The Base when wretched dare to Dye but He Is Brave indeed who dares to Live in Misery †Si fractus illabatur orbis Impavidum ferient ruinae Horat. Od. 3. L. 3. If the Crack'd Orbs should split and fall Crush him they might but not Appall Sir R. Fanshaw Nay these Men ought to be accounted Infamous and treated as Deserters For no Man can answer quitting the Post he is order'd to without the express Leave and fresh Orders of the Superior Officer who placed hi there We are by no means put into the World upon our own account alone and therefore Personal Calamities must not put us upon an Act of so great Injustice as the squandring away That in which Others have a Right as well as We nor yet are we Masters of our selves but under the Disposal and Direction of a Lord who hath a Right Paramount Thus you see what Arguments are generally brought on either side but if we set the Considerations of Duty and Religion aside and take the Liberty to speak the Sense of mere Nature in the Case the Resolution she would come to seems to be This That Men ought not to enter upon this Last and Boldest Exploit without some very extraordinary and most pressing Reason to induce them that so it may be what They call making a Decent and Honourable Exit Every slight Occasion every little Pett or cross Accident will not justify Men's falling out with the World and therefore They are certainly in a great Error who pretend that a small Excuse will serve to quit Life since there are no very Weighty Arguments to persuade our keeping it This is highly ungrateful to God and Nature when so Rich a Present is so much slighted and undervalued It is an Argument of great Levity and betrays a great deal of Moroseness and Ill Humour when we quarrel and break Company upon every slender Provocation But indeed there is something to be said though that something is not enough for a very Urgent and Weighty Occasion such as renders Life a perpetual Torment and the Thoughts of continuing in it insupportable such for Instance as I mentioned formerly Long Acute Excessive Pain or the certain Prospect of a very Cruel and Ignominious Death And upon this account the several Persons that I am going to name how favourably soever Story hath represented their Behaviour do by no means seem to have a Plea sufficient to Justify no not so much as to Excuse a Voluntary Death Such are Pomponius Attiâ—us Marcellinus and Cleanthes who after they had begun the Process resolved to finish it merely because they would avoid the trouble of having the whole Course to begin and go through again For what Apology soever might be made for the delivering themselves from a Painful Distemper yet when that Pain and the Cause of it were removed they lay under no farther Temptation to be out of love with Life and a bare Possibility of the Disease returning was a Consideration much too remote The Wives of Paetus and Scaurus and Labeo and Fulvius the intimate Friend of Augustus of Seneca and a great many more were as fantastically fool-hardy when they killed Themselves either to bear their Husbands Company out of the World or to invite Them to go with them So likewise Cato and others who were discontented with the Event of their Undertakings and the Chance of War and chose rather to dye by their own hands than to fall into their Enemy's notwithstanding these Enemies were such as gave them no just ground to fear any barbarous or dishonourable Treatment from them neither The same Censure will fall upon Them who murder'd themselves rather than they would be beholding to one they hated for their Lives or lye at the Mercy of an Ill Man as Gravius Silvanus and Statius Proximus did after Nero had given them his Pardon Nor are They less to blame who run into the Shades of Death to hide themselves from Shame and cover the Reproach of some past Dishonour or Misfortune such as Lucretia after the Injury she had suffered from Tarquin and Spargopises Son to Tomyris the Seythian Queen and Boges Commander under Xerxes the former because he could not bear being Prisoner of War to Cyrus the other for the Loss of a Town taken by Cimon the Athenian General Nor They who could not endure to survive a Publick Calamity though nothing extraordinary had befallen Them in particular such as Nerva the Great Lawyer Vibius Virius at the Taking of Capua and Jubelliâ—s at the Death of the greatest part of their Senators inflicted by a Roman Officer And least of all can those Nice and Delicate People excuse themselves who chuse to dye because they are cloyed with Life and weary of repeating the Same Things over again Nay I must go farther yet For it is by no means sufficient that the Occasion be very Important and full of Difficulty unless it be Desperate and past all Remedy too for nothing less than Necessity ought to be pleaded here and This should be the last Reserve the Only Escape from Extremity of Misfortune Upon this Account Rashness and Despondency and anticipating one's Fate and Giving all for Lost is always exceeding blameable an Instance whereof we have in Brutus and Cassius who before there was any occasion for it put an End to their own Lives and with Them to all the languishing Remains of the Liberty of Rome which was committed to and depended entirely upon Their Protection For as Cleomenes truly said Men are under an Obligation to use Life frugally and to make it go as far as possibly they can nay not only to contrive that it may last as long as is possible but that it may be useful to the very last For a Man may discharge himself of this Trust at any time and when Things are at the very worst tht they can be This Remedy is what no Man can be at a loss for But we should wait for better Days and try whether the hand of our Fortune will not mend upon us * Aliquis Carnisici suo superstes fuit Many a Man as Seneca observes hath outliv'd his Executioner Josephus and a great many besides have followed this Advice to excellent good purpose and Matters when in all human probability desperate and lost have wheel'd about and taken a quite different Course
the same time to the Exercise of its Vegetative and Sensitive Powers as we see plainly by Instances of Persons who have been raised from the Dead to live here below But this would not infer a Necessity of the same things for living in another State For those Faculties whose Exercise supports this Life we now lead are not thereby proved of such Consequence that no other kind of Life could be supported or enjoyed without them It is in this Case with the Soul as with the Sun for the same Instance will be of Use to illustrate our Argument in this Branch also which continues the same in himself every whit as entire and unblemished not in any Degree enfeebled though his Lustre and Vital Influences be sometimes intercepted and obstructed When his Face is cover'd with a Total Eclipse we lose the cheerful Light and cherishing Heat but though no sensible Effects of him appear yet he is in his own Nature the same Powerful Principle and Glorious Creature still Having thus as I hope sufficiently evidenced the Unity of the Soul It s Origine in each Individual animated by it let us in the next Place proceed to observe from whence it is deriv'd and how it makes its Entry into the Body Concerning the Former of these Particulars great Disputes have been maintained by Philosophers and Divines of all Ages Concerning the Origine of the Humane and Intellectual Soul I mean for as to the Vegetative and Sensitive attributed to Plants and Beasts those by general Consent have been esteemed to consist intirely of Matter to be transferred with the Seminal Principles and accordingly subject to Corruption and Death So that the whole Controversy turns upon the single Point of the Humane Soul and concerning this the Four most Celebrated Opinions have been these which follow I omit the Mention of any more which are almost lost in the Crowd because These have obtained so much more generally and gained greater Credit than the Rest The First of these is that Notion of the Stoicks embraced by Philo the Jew and after Him by the Manichees Priscillianists and others This maintains Reasonable Souls to be so many Extracts and genuine Productions of the Divine Spirit Partakers of the very same Nature and Substance with Almighty God himself who being said expresly to have breathed it into the Body these Persons have taken the Advantage of Moses's Words and fixed the sublimest Sense imaginable upon them He Breathed into him the Breath of Life by which they are not content to understand that the Soul of Man is a distinct Thing and of a different and more exalted Original than the Body a Spirit of greater Excellence than that which quickens any other Animal but they stretch it to a Communication of God's own Essence The Second was deriv'd from Aristotle receiv'd by Tertullian Apollinaris the Sect of the Luciferians and some other Christians and This asserts the Soul to be derived from our Parents as the Body is and in the same Manner and from the same Principles with that whence the Soul of Brutes and all that are confin'd to Sense and Vegetation only are generally believ'd to spring The Third is that of the Pythagoreans and Platonists entertained by most of the Rabbinical Philosophers and Jewish Doctors and after them by Origen and some other Christian Doctors too Which pretends that all Souls were created by God at the beginning of the World that they were then by Him commanded and made out of Nothing that they are reserv'd and deposited in some of the Heavenly Regions and afterwards as his Infinite Wisdom sees Occasion sent down hither into Bodies ready fitted for and disposed to entertain them Upon this Opinion was built another of Souls being well or ill dealt with here below and lodged in sound and healthful or else in feeble and sickly Bodies according to their Good or Ill Behaviour in a State and Region above antecedent to their being thus Incorporated with these Mortal and Fleshly Tabernacles How generally this Notion prevail'd we have a notable Hint from that great Master of Wisdom who gives this Account of his large improvements Wisd VIII 19 20. above the common Rate of Men I was a Witty Child and had a good Spirit yea rather being Good I came into a Body undefiled Thus intimating a Priority of Time as well as of Order and Dignity in the Soul and that its good Dispositions qualified it for a Body so disposed too The Fourth which hath met with the most general Approbation among Christians Especially holds that the Soul is created by God infus'd into a Body prepared duly for its Reception That it hath no Pre-existence in any separate State or former Vehicle but that its Creation and Infusion are both of the same Date These Four Opinions are all of them Affirmative There is yet a Fifth more modest and reserv'd than any of the former This undertakes not to determine Positively one way or other but is content Ingenuously to confess its own Ignorance and Uncertainty declares this a Matter of very abstruse Speculation a dark and deep Mystery which God hath not thought fit particularly to reveal and which Man by the Strength and Penetration of his own Reason can know but very little or nothing of Of this Opinion we find St. Augustine St. Gregory of Nice and some others But though they presume not so far as to give any definitive Sentence on any Side yet they plainly incline to think that of the Four Opinions here mention'd the Two latter carry a greater Appearance of Truth than the Two former But how The Entrance into the Body and when this Humane Soul for of the Brutal there is little or no Dispute nor is the present Enquiry concerned in it Whether This I say make its Entrance all at once or whether the Approaches are gradual and slow Whether it attain its just Essential Perfections in an Instant or whether it grow up to them by Time and Succession is another very great Question The More general Opinion which seems to have come from Aristotle is That the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul whose Essence is no other than Matter and Body is in the Principles of Generation that it descends lineally and is derived to us from the Substance of our Parents that This is finished and Perfected in Time and by Degrees and Nature acts in this Case a little like Art when That undertakes to form the Image of a Man where first the Out-Lines and rude Sketches are drawn then the Features specified yet These not of his whole Body at once but first the Painter finishes the Head then the Neck after that the Breast the Legs and so on till he have drawn the whole Length Thus the Vegetative and Sensitive Soul they tell you forms the Body in the Womb and when That is finished and made fit for the Reception of its new Inhabitant the Intellectual Soul comes from abroad and takes Possession
created To This one may reply with Reason enough What do you make of all the Happiness you have enjoy'd What would become of This if you had had no Being And would it not have been some Matter some Hurt never to have enjoy'd it For certainly tho' the loss of the Good which we have and know the worth of be a more sensible Evil yet the mere privation of Good and never having it at all is One sort of Evil too even tho' that Good be such as we shou'd never have missed nor such as was necessary to us These Extremes are too wide they overstrain the Point on both sides and degenerate into Vice tho' they are not equally vicious and erroneous neither I confess speaking in the Quality of a Philosopher and with regard to the present State of Assairs only I do not think That Wise Ancient much out of the way who acknowledged †Vitam nemo acciperet si daretur scientibus Life to be Good but such a Good as no Man would accept of if it were left to his own free Choice and he were fairly inform'd beforehand what Incumbrances lay upon it It is not at all amiss that we are engaged in it before we know what it is We come into the World blindfold but That is no reason why Men shou'd afterwards put out their own Eyes or hoodwink themselves For the Mischief is that when we are got hither we run into different Ways Some cheat themselves into so extravagant a Fondness for Life that they wou'd not part with it again at any rate Others fret themselves into so ill an Opinion of it that they grumble eternally are discontented at every thing and pretend to be weary and sick of Living But Wise Men have juster Notions of the Matter They consider that this was a Bargain made without their Knowledge or Consent for no Man lives or dies assoon or as late or in such Manner and Circumstances as he pleases himself But still it is a Bargain we are bound to stand to and if it be a hard one we must try to make the best of it Sometimes we shall meet with Rough Ways but the whole Passage is not so And therefore Philosophers agree that the best Course is to create no Disturbance nor struggle and flounder unprofitably but for Men to suit their Tempers and comply with their Circumstances as well as they can to carry it off with Evenness and Moderation and make a Virtue of Necessity for That is the Character of Wisdom and Good Management And when they have fixed themselves in this Method then to live as long as is Fit for them consistent with their Duty and Decency Not as long as is Possible for them which is the Principle of foolish and profligate People For there is a Season proper for Dying as well as one for Living and a Virtuous Honourable Death is a Thousand time rather to be chosen than a Wicked and Infamous Life Now a Wise and Good Man makes it his Business to live just so long as Life is better than Death and no longer For as we observed before that They are in the Wrong who esteem the shortest Life best so is that common Opinion a Mistake too which raises the Value by Computation of Years and accounts that Life best which lasts longest The Shortness of that Term allow'd us in this World is a great and a general Complaint Of the 〈◊〉 of Life We meet it in every Mouth not from the Ignorant and Vulgar only where we cannot expect better than that They should be willing to live always but which may be allow'd a little to surprize us even Great Souls and Wise Men reckon it among their very greatest Unhappinesses Now to say the very Truth as Men usually manage the Matter and indeed as Nature hath in some measure contriv'd it Life is very short For the greatest part of it is employed and diverted otherwise and a very small Proportion left for the true Uses and Ends of Living The Time of our Infancy and Ignorance the Decays and Infirmities of Old Age the necessary Intervals of Sleep the Diseases of our Bodies and our Minds and the infinite other void Spaces of it wherein we are incapable of doing Good run away with a great deal of our Time And when the Whole is summ'd up and these Abatements made the Remainder is not much But yet without troubling our selves with the Contrary Opinion which asserts the Shortness of Life to be greatly for our Advantage we shall find Reason enough to accuse this Complaint of Injustice and to think it more the effect of Inconsideration and Ill-Nature than of good Arguing and Virtuous Disposition For what Advantage would a longer Life be to us Shall we wish for it to no other purpose but merely to Live in to take our Ease to Eat and Drink and Sleep to Look about us and see more of the World What need is there of so much Time for this We have already seen and known and tasted what we are capable of in a very little time and when we are got to the End of our Curiosity This is sufficient What Good will it do us or wherefore should we wish to act the same things over and over again and be always beginning afresh Who would not be cloyed with eating upon the same Dish every Day If this be not nauseous and troublesome yet to be sure it is superfluous and unnecessary This is but One Circle which is perpetually rolling and brings the same things uppermost again sometimes they remove to a little distance and then they quickly return back upon us T is but a spinning the same Web and That which may serve a Child to play with but can never be a sit Entertainment for grown Men. Shall we then wish it for nobler Ends that we may grow Wiser and Better and aspire to higher degrees of Virtue and Perfection that we may do more Good and be more useful in our Generations This indeed carries the Appearance of an excellent Disposition but They that know us will not be imposed upon by it For Who shall teach Who shall improve us Alas That Little which is committed to our Trust is so ill used that we cannot have the Confidence to ask for more We neglect what we have already and suffer the greatest part of it to slip thro' our Fingers We squander it away profusely upon Vanity and Trifles nay we abuse and misemploy it upon Wickedness and Vice And yet after all this Unfaithfulness and Folly we cry and complain for more and think our selves ill dealt with that we have not enough Enough for What For the same insignificant and ill purposes to be sure for That wou'd be the Consequence of a more liberal Allowance too But supposing Men serious in this Matter and that they wou'd really do as they pretend yet of what Use wou'd this vast Treasure of Knowledge and Experience prove
were brought on or what Part they were to act * Quidam vivere incipiunt cum desinendum Quidam ante desiverunt quà m inciperent Inter caetera mala hoc quoque habet stultitia semper incipit vivere Some says the Philosopher begin to live when they should make an End others cease to live before ever they begun Among the many Mischiefs that Folly brings upon us This is not the least That it is always beginning to live We think of Business and intend to set about it but make no Progress at all nor bring any thing to perfection The World is a Theatre and our present Life in it the Beginning and the End of a Play Description of it our Birth draws the Curtain and our Death shuts it up again T is a Comedy of Errours a constant Succession of Accidents and Adventures a Contexture and Chain of several Miseries linked closely and interwoven within one another nothing but Evil on every side That which passes off and that which approaches and comes into its place and these drive out and push forward each other as the Waves of the Sea do in their Ebbings and Flowings Trouble and Disquiet are always at hand but for Happiness we are cheated with the empty Shadow of it Blindness and Insensibility take up the Beginning of our Lives Labour and Anxious Care the Middle Weakness and Pain the Latter End But Ignorance and Errour reach from the Beginning to the End These are inseparable and keep us Company quite through The Life of Man hath its Inconveniences and Miseries of several sorts Some of them are in Common extending to all Persons and all Times Others are Peculiar and Successive and distinguish'd by the different Parts and Age and particular Seasons and Accidents of Life As Childhood Youth Maturity Man's Estate and Old Age for Each of these hath its distinct Calamities some Embasements and Incumbrances which may be properly call'd its own When Youth and Old Age come to be weigh'd one against the other Youth and Age compar'd it hath been usual to give the Advantage to the Latter And most Authors speak of Age with Honour and Respect as having attain'd to greater degrees of Wisdom more maturity of Judgment more Moderation and Temper All which good Qualities are marvellously cry'd up with a Design to put Youth out of Countenance and to charge upon it the contrary Characters of Vice and Folly Licentiousness and Extravagance But with the leave of those who have thus decided the Controversie I must take Liberty to declare that this Verdict is in my Opinion very unjust For in good truth the Defects and the Vices of Age are More in Number Worse in Quality and less to be resisted or recover'd than those that are peculiar to Youth Years deform our Minds as much as our Bodies bring Wrinkles there as well as in our Faces and turn our Tempers sour and mouldy with long keeping The Soul keeps pace with the Body Both are spent and Both decay till at last we grow so weak so perfectly helpless as in respect of both to verifie that Proverb of Old Men being twice Children Age is a necessary but a strong Disease it loads us insensibly with grievous Imperfections and then contrives to cover the Shame of them with creditable Names What is in effect no other than Moroseness of Humour a peevish dislike of the present Enjoyments and Disability to do as the Man did heretofore passes for Wisdom and Gravity Experience and an Insight into the Vanity of the World But Wisdom is somewhat much more noble than all this comes to and far above making use of such mean Instruments There is a vast difference between growing older and growing wiser between forsaking all Vice and the changing one for another and as it often happens in this Case changing for the Worse Old Age condemns the Pleasures and Gayeties of Youth but how much of this must be allowed to it s not being now able to relish them any longer It is like Esop's Dog hates and despises what it cannot enjoy But This is not to disdain and give over Pleasure it is rather to be disdain'd and given over by it Pleasure is always Airy and Entertaining and these are Persons no longer for its Turn But why should they cast a Reflection upon That which is due to themselves Why shou'd Impotence corrupt their Judgment For this if impartially consulted would tell Young Men that there is Vice in their Pleasures and Old Men that there is Pleasure in Vice And if this were rightly understood and frankly confest Youth would be a great deal the better and Old Age not one whit the worse The Vices more peculiar to Youth are Rashness and Heat Forwardness and an unguarded Conversation Debauchery and all manner of Sensual Excess And these are in some Degree natural to that State the Effects of Warmth and Vigour and the Boylings of a Florid Blood All which as they need and ought to be corrected so they have something to say in their own Excuse But what Apology shall we make for the Ill Qualities that attend Old Age The lightest and least of which are vain Arrogance and Pride a troublesome and peremptory way of Conversing and an engrossing all the Talk to themselves froward and unsociable Humours Superstition and Whimsie Love of Riches when past the use of them sordid Avarice and Fear of Death which generally is not as some have favourably interpreted the Case the effect of a cold Blood and low Spirits and of Courage damp'd by these Natural Causes but it proceeds from long Custom and Acquaintance and a foolish Fondness for the World by which the Old Gentleman hath corrupted his Judgment and hath a greater Tenderness for it than young Men who enjoy more and know less of it Besides these there are Envy and Ill-Nature and Injustice but the most exquisite and ridiculous Folly of all is that Affectation of a severe and grave and wise Character and hoping to gain Respect and Deference by an Austere Look and Scornful Behaviour which indeed does but provoke Laughter and become it self a Jest while it pretends to extort Observance and Fear For the Young Fellows combine together against this formal Austerity which they see put on only for a Disguise and with a design to amuse and affright them into Reverence where real Merit which would engage it is wanting In short The Vices of Old Age are so numerous on the One Hand and the Infirmities of it on the Other and Both together conspire to render it so despicable that the best and most saving Game it can play is to secure Mens Affections and to win them by Methods of Kindness and Affability and Good-Nature For Churlishness and an Imperious Humour and whatever aims at Fear and Dominion are not by any means Weapons fit for These Persons to manage The Affecting so very much Awe does by no means become them and if the thing
effects of confirming and fortifying the Innocent But the Contrary of this happens so often that to speak the Truth This is an ensnaring and a pitiful Method a poor and base way of Dealing full of Doubt and Uncertainty For what would not a Man say or do to get quit of such Misery * Etenim Innocentes mentiri cogit Dolor Pain extorts Lies from the most Innocent so that a Judge which examines upon the Rack to prevent the Death of Innocent Persons first Racks the Innocent and then Murders him Many a Thousand People have loaded themselves with false Accusations But were it not so what intolerable Injustice and Cruelty is it to torture and break a Man to pieces for a Fault which as yet there is no Proof of To avoid killing him without Cause they do ten times worse than kill him If he be innocent and bear it out What Justice can there be in putting him to any Pain at all You 'll say By bearing the Rack he is absolv'd I thank you very kindly But This however tho' an Evil is the least Humane Infirmity could contrive and yet this is not practised every where neither I confess to Me the Custom of determining Controversies and clearing Men's Innocence by Combat seems to have less of Injustice and Barbarity in it And yet This tho' formerly much in request is long since very justly condemned and exploded For Christianity allows no such bloody Methods nor warrants any dependence upon them for a discovery of the Truth But if Man be so weak as we have seen in regard of Virtue and in his practical Capacity V. Truth he is much more so in his Intellectual and in relation to Truth T is prodigious that Man should be so form'd by Nature as to desire Truth eagerly and grudge no Pains to attain it and yet so at the same time as not to bear it when it offers it self to his View The Flashes of it blind him the Thunder of it stuns him it is too bright and too loud to be born This is not Truth 's Fault however which is exceeding beautiful exceeding lovely exceeding good and beneficial to Mankind and what was said of Virtue and Wisdom is at least as properly applicable to Truth * Quae si oculis cerneretur mirabiles sui amores excitaret Ciâ— of l. 1. That could we behold all its Charms the whole World would be infinitely in love with it But the Defect is on Man's side his Faculties cannot bear so strong a Light its Beams dazzle nay hurt his Senses In Affairs merely Humane he that sets it before us is esteem'd our Enemy Truth and Plain-dealing are disobliging things And what Perversness is this that what we love and seek so passionately we should be so loath so angry to find Truth is not only amiable but knowable too yet not perfectly so by Us for at present it seems Man is only strong in Desire but weak in his Enjoyment of it and not able to receive what he desires The Two chief Means made use of to bring him to the Knowledge of the Truth are Reason and Experience But both these are insufficient and so very weak tho' of the Two Experience seems the more so that no certain Conclusions can be drawn from them Reason hath so many Tricks and Turnings is so flexible in its Arguments and so disguis d in its Forms that any thing may be made plausible from it as will be observ'd in another place Experience is no less fallible because Events are constantly unlike one another Nothing in Nature is so Universal as Disparity nothing so rare so difficult so impossible indeed as Likeness And nothing argues greater Weakness and want of Judgment than the not being able to discern and distinguish the Difference This however is to be understood of such a Likeness and such a Diversity as is perfect and holds in every Circumstance For indeed both Similitude and Dissimilitude are everywhere in some respect and degree No Two things are in every regard Like none in all respects Unlike one another So exceedingly ingenious hath Nature approv'd herself in the Mixture and Composition of the World But after all What can make more full Discoveries of Humane Infirmity than Religion it self hath done It s main Intention and End is to lower Man in his own Esteem to shew and make him duly sensible how wicked how weak how mere a Nothing he is and in this humble Sense to drive him to God for Succour and Support who is indeed his Happiness his Resuge and Strength nay his All. The first Method taken to inculcate these mean Notions of our Selves is by Instructing Reminding Upbraiding us setting before us the Reproachful Titles of Dust and Ashes Earth Flesh and Blood Grass and the like After that it insinuates this Truth after a most noble and excellent and stupendous manner introducing God humbling debasing himself and becoming weak for the sake of Man speaking expostulating entreating promising swearing growing angry threatning and in a Word entring into Treaty and Terms and managing him by all the endearing Arts of Persuasion in the same tender kind condescending Methods with which a fond Father wins and gains upon his Children by stooping to their little Follies and imitating their Infant-Imperfections So very great it seems so insuperable was the Weakness of Humane Nature that no Access could be attain'd no Correspondence held with the Divinity till God himself was pleas'd to make the first Approaches and by descending to our Capacities and our Level to draw us nearer to himself While He continu'd in his Native Majesty the Distance was too vast and therefore the only way to bring Us up to Heaven was for God to come down upon Earth A Third Instance is in the Ordinary Exercise of Religion for what more lively Emblems more expressive Symbols more unanswerable Proofs of our Impotence and Insirmity than the Principal and most Solemn Acts of Worship have ever been What shall we say to Sacrifices which in former Ages seem to have been in use all the World over I mention not the horrible unnatural Cruelties into which thro' the Corruption of Mankind and the Wicked Artifice of the Devil this Custom degenerated in Idolatrous Countries those barbarous Oblations or rather Murders and Massacres of Men and Children of the best and most innocent Persons among them But confining our selves to that of Beasts only we shall be clearly convinc'd that These were so many Marks and Remembrancers of Men's own Vileness and Infirmity For first of all In the very Nature of the Thing they were so many Testimonies of the Curse and Condemnation we lay under a sort of publick authentick Acknowledgment that the Offerer himself had justly deserv'd that Death inflicted by Him upon the Beast and a beseeching God to accept that devoted Life in the stead of his own forfeited Life For without all Dispute had there been no Curse no Condemnation to which Men
Rome for a considerable time after the Founding of that City It is therefore most foolish and unjust to asperse Religion and charge That with the Vices of Men which allows and teaches nothing but exquisite Purity and strict Continence This Liberty taken in Polygamy Polygamy differently practised which hath so great an Appearance of Nature to alledge in its behalf hath yet been very differently managed according to the several Nations and the Laws of those Communities where it was allow'd and practis'd In Some Places All that are Wives to the same Man live alike and in common Their Degree and Quality the Respect and Authority is equal and so is the Condition and Title of their Children too In Other Places there is one particular Wife who is the Principal and a sort of Mistress above the rest the Right of Inheritance is limited to the Children by Her They engross all the Honours and Possessions and Pre-eminences of the Husband after his Death As for the Others they are lodg'd and maintain'd apart treated very differently from the former In some Places they are reputed Lawful Wives in some they are only stiled Concubines and their Children have no Pretension to Titles or Estates but are provided for by such annual Pensions or other precarious ways of Subsisting as the Master of the Family thinks fit to allow them As various have the Practice and the Customs of Men been with regard to Divorce Divorce differently practised For with some as particularly the Hebrews and Greeks and Armenians they never oblige Themselves to alledge the particular Cause of Separation nor are they allow'd to take a Wife to them a Second time which they have once divorc'd So far from it that they are permitted to Marry again to others But now in the Mahometan Law Separation must be appointed by a Judge and after Legal Process except it be done by the free Consent of both Parties and the Crimes alledg'd against the Woman must be some of so high a Nature as strike directly at the Root of this Institution and are destructive and inconsistent with the State of Marriage or some of the principal Ends of it such as Adultery Barrenness Incongruity of Humours Attempts upon the Life of the other Party and after such Separation made it is lawful for them to be reconcil'd and cohabit again as oft as they think sit The Former of these Methods seems much more prudent and convenient that so there may be a closer Restraint both upon the Pride and Insolence of Wives when they lie at Mercy and may be cast off at Pleasure and also upon the Humoursome and Peevish Husbands who will be more apt to check and moderate their Resentments when there is no Return nothing to be got by repenting after once Matters have flown so high as to provoke and effect a Separation The Second which proceeds in a Method of Justice brings the Parties upon the Publick Stage exposes their Faults and Follies to the World cuts them out from Second Marriages and discovers a great many things which were much better kept conceal'd And in case the Allegation be not fully prov'd and so they continue oblig'd to cohabit still after all this mutual Complaining and Disgrace What a Temptation is here to Poysoning or Murder to get rid that way of a Partner of the Bed which in Course of Law cannot be remov'd And many of these Villanies no doubt have been committed of which the World never had the least Knowledge or Suspicion As at Rome particularly before Divorce came in use a Woman who was apprehended for Poysoning her Husband impeached other Wives whom she knew to have been guilty of the same Fact and They again others till at last Threescore and Ten were all Attainted and Executed for the same Fault of whom People had not the least Jealousie till this Discovery was made But that which seems the worst of all in the Laws relating to a Married Life is that Adultery is scarce any where punish'd with Death and all that can be done in that Case is only Divorce and ceasing to cohabit Which was an Ordinance introduc'd by Justinian One whom his Wife had in perfect Subjection And no wonder if She made use of that Dominion as she really did to get such Laws enacted as made most for the Advantage of her own Sex Now this leaves Men in perpetual danger of Adultery tempts them to malicious Desires of one another's Death the Offender that does the Injury is not made a sufficient Example and the Innocent Person that receives the Wrong hath no Reparation made for it Of the Duty of Married Persons See Book III. Chap. 12. CHAP. XLVII Of Parents and Children THere are several Sorts and several Degrees of Authority and Power among Men Paternal Authority Some Publick and others Private but not any of them more agreeable to Nature not Any more absolute and extensive than that of a Father over his Children I choose to instance in the Father rather than the Mother because she being herself in a State of Subjection to her Husband cannot so properly be said to have her Children under her Jurisdiction But even this Paternal Authority hath not been at all Times and in all Parts of the World equal and alike In some Ages and Places and indeed of Old almost every where it was universal Dion Halicar lib. 2. Antiq. and without restraint The Life and Death Estates and Goods the Liberty and Honour the Actions and Behaviour of Children was entirely at Their Will They sued and were sued for them They disposed of them in Marriage the Labours of the Children redounded to the Parents Profit nay They themselves were a kind of Commodity for among the Romans we sind this Article Rom. 1. in Suis ff de lib. posth in that which was call'd Romulus his Law * Parentum in Liberos omne Jus esto relegandi vendendi occidendi The Right of Parents over Children shall be entire and unlimited they shall have Power to abdicate and banish to sell and to put them to death Only it is to be observ'd That all Children under Three Years old were excepted out of this Condition because they could not be capable of offending in Word or Deed Aul. Gel. lib. 20. Aristot Ethic. lib. 8. Caesar lib. 6. de Bell. Gall. Prosper Aquit in Epist Sigism nor to give any just Provocation for such hard Usage This Law was afterwards confirm'd and renew'd by the Law of the Twelve Tables which allow'd Parents to sell their Children Three times And the Persians as Aristotle tells us the Antient Gauls as Caesar and Prosper agree the Muscovites and Tartars might do it Four times There want not some probable Reasons to persuade us that this Power had some Foundation or Countenance at least in the Law of Nature and that Instance of Abraham undertaking to slay his Son hath been made use of as an Argument to this
made Answer That he indeed should have some Temptation to grow proud upon their Praises but that he consider'd whom they came from and they who gave him good Words then durst not take upon them to Chide him when he happen'd to deserve it The Seventh Particular Being kept in Ignorance in which they exceed the Miseries of common Men and That which perhaps is of all others the worst in it self and most destructive to the publick Safety is That they are not at liberty to use their own Discretion in the choice of Servants and Officers of Honour and Trust nor have Opportunities of attaining to a true and perfect Knowledge of Things They are never suffer'd to know All nor are they ever throughly acquainted what condition their Affairs are really in some better Face put upon the good part and some part conceal'd or colour'd over which is unfortunate or ill-manag'd and would be unacceptable if rightly represented As little are they let in to the true Characters of Men and consequently who are fit to be employ'd and trusted And what can be more miserable than such a State of Ignorance as This when They whose concern it is to know best are far from understanding truly either what is to be done or who are most proper to do it Alas they are encompassed and blockaded up as it were by People of the first Quality whom there is no getting loose from Either such as are their own Relations or who upon the Account of their Families and Honours and Places or by long Custom and Prescription are so fix'd in Authority and have so great a Concern in the Management of Affairs that it is not advisable or safe to give them Disgust They must be caress'd and preferr'd and have no ground of Jealousie or Discontent given them If Offices of the highest Consequence are to be dispos'd of These Persons must not be overlook'd if when they are thus employ'd they prove incapable or unfit the Retreat is difficult All the Nobility of their Alliance resent their Slight or their Disgrace and the mending an Improper Choice or the making a Proper One is sometimes in hazard of bringing All into Confusion Now these Persons who make it their Business to keep their Prince constantly muffled up and never let him see the World take good care that nothing shall appear to him as it really is and that all such as are truly better and more useful Men than Themselves shall never gain free Access to him nor have their Abilities known O! 't is a wretched thing to see nothing but with other Peoples Eyes and to hear nothing but with other Mens Ears as Princes whose Eminence will not admit of Freedom and Plain-dealing and promiscuous Conversation are under a necessity of doing But that which makes the Misery complete and the very worst that can be is that commonly speaking Princes and Great Persons are by a strange sort of Fatality destin'd to and in the possession of Three sorts of Men who are the very Bane and Pest of Mankind viz. Flatterers Projectors for raising Money and Informers And these under a specious but counterfeit Pretence either of Zeal and Affection for their Prince as the Two former do or of Integrity and Virtue and Reformation as the last instead of improving or amending either utterly deprave and ruine both Prince and People The Eighth Misery is That they are less Masters of their own Wills than any other Persons For in all their Proceedings there are infinite Considerations and Respects which they are bound to observe and these captivate and constrain their Designs and Inclinations and Desires * In maximâ fortunà minima licentia The greater any Man's Station and Capacity is the less he is at his own Disposal This one would think should prevail for fair Quarter at least and favourable Allowances for what they do but instead of being pitied or lamented for this Hardship they are the most barbarously treated the most severely censured and traduced of any Men living For every bold Fellow sets up for a Politician and undertakes to guess at their Meanings to penetrate into their very Hearts and Thoughts * Abditos Principis sensus si quid occultius parat exquirere illicitum anceps nec ideo assequare To pry too curiously into the secret Intentions of a Prince is unlawful or if it were not yet it is but doubtful and a Guess at best what we cannot compass and therefore ought not to attempt The Cabinets of Princes are Sacred and their Breasts ought to be much more so These busie Men cannot discern them and yet they are eternalâ—y arraigning and sentencing They have a quite different Prospect of Things and see them under another Face from what they appear to Those at the Helm or if they saw them both alike yet both are not equally capable of understanding the Intricacies of them Intrigues of State are Things above a Vulgar Capacity but notwithstanding every Man expects his Prince should do what He thinks most convenient and blames his Conduct if he do otherwise there is no Favour no Patience to be obtained for any thing contrary to each Man 's Private Sentiments tho' it be in it self never so fit never so necessary never so impossible to have been managed otherwise In a Word every Shop every Coffee-house sits in Judgment upon their Governours and without hearing or knowing the Merits of the Cause proceed to severe and sawcy Condemnations of Them Lastly It happens very often Their miserable End that Princes come to a very untimely and unfortunate End not only such of Them as by Usurpation and Tyranny provoke Men to bring it upon them for this is not much to be wonder'd at and such have no more than their Due but which is a miserable Case indeed Those who are most Rightful in their Title and most regular and just and gentle in the Administration of their Government How frequent Instances of this kind does the Roman History present us with in those Emperours that follow'd after the Civil Wars of Pompey and Caesar And not to go so far back we know that Henry III. of France was Assassinated by a little insignificant Frier in the midst of an Army of Forty Thousand Men and infinite other Examples of Poysonings Murders and villanous Conspiracies are to be found in all Ages * Ad generum Cereris sine caede sanguâ—ne pauci Descendunt Reges siccâ morte Tyranni Kings post down to the Shades in Blood few stay For Common Deaths and Nature's slow decay A Man would be almost tempted to imagine that as Storms and Tempests seem to wreek their Spight most upon the towering Pride of the loftyest Buildings so there are some malicious Spirits that envy and make it their Business to humble and ruine and trample down the Majesty and Greatness of Those who stand most exalted here below †Usque adeo res humanas
Title indisputable to shew for it for nothing can be more palpably false than that either of these Two does All and the other Nothing Perhaps indeed Matters would go better if it were not thus and Men have reason to wish That the whole Authority were vested in one of them singly For then we should know what to trust to Then our Task would be easy because all our Thought and Diligence would be fixed and determined to one Object whereas now we float between both the Distraction of the Mind renders our Attempts infinitely laborious and full of hazard and we can very hardly attend to both and bring them friendly to conspire together Daily Experience proves this Truth to us for usually those who are very much taken up with the One disregard and perfectly despise the Other Thus the Young and Sanguine the Forward and Daring Men keep Fortune in their Eye and lay the main stress there as you see plainly by their large Hopes and the mighty Successes they promise themselves in every Undertaking And Fortune often rewards this Respect they pay her and declares them her Favourites by the many Prodigious and most Surprizing things wrought by them On the Other hand Men in Years whose Blood is cold and heavy and They consequently calm and slow place all their Expectations in Industry And it cannot be denied but These act the more reasonably of the Two If a Man were disposed to compare them both together and observe what can be alledg'd to determine his Choice on either side we may state the Matter very fairly Thus. He that depends upon Industry takes the Safest Side the more Virtuous and the more Reputable For admit that Fortune run counter and spightfully defeat all his Diligence yet is there still this Satisfaction left that he hath made no false Steps that he suffered in his proper Post doing his Duty and that he hath acquitted himself as became a Wife and an Honest Man Those that take the other course are in great danger of waiting and hoping in vain But if all should succeed to their hearts desire yet still this is none of Their doing nor is there really any Credit or Commendation due to them for it But indeed Wisdom takes a middle Course she advises no Man entirely to devote himself to either of these and though One may be preferred yet not to that degree as to bring the Other into absolute Neglect and Contempt For since Neither can be excluded from our Affairs it is fit we should allow Both a place in our Regard and indeed they are often beholding to one another and an observing Man will easily discern a great deal of Mutual Assistance and a very good Understanding between them We must take care then to discharge our part to Both but Both do not challenge our Respects alike For the Preference is abundantly on the side of Industry for according to that old Motto * Virtute duce comite Fortunà Virtue should lead and Fortune go along with us There is yet one necessary Caution behind which is In all our Behaviour to act with Discretion For This seasons every Action and gives it an agreeable Relish Now Discretion is not any One Particular Quality but a Large and Comprehensive Virtue that mingles with every part of our Duty Indiscretion spoils all and the very best Actions if tainted with it lose all their Beauty and Commendation If a Man design an Act of Beneficence or Charity This is necessary to direct it for neither all Kindnesses are fit to be done nor all sorts of Persons fit to receive them If a Man would vindicate or excuse himself he must do it discreetly for there are some ways of Apologizing which in effect are Bills of Indictment against one's Self and increase the Suspicion instead of clearing our Innocence If a Man would pay Civilities and appear courteous and well-bred he must distinguish and moderate himself here too otherwise he will run into the Excess of Foppery and Affectation or degenerate into Clownish Rudeness and the same may be said of Offering or Accepting or any other Instance of Courtesy and Conversation or indeed of Virtue in general for without this Prudence and discreet Managery even Virtue and the best Intentions can never recommend nay can scarce justify themselves to the Spectators CHAP. XI The Fruits or Good Effects of Wisdom The First Living in a constant Readiness for Death THE Day of our Death is the Principal and most Important of any that belongs to us The Day of Death That which gives the finishing Stroke and fixes the Character upon all the rest for indeed all the Actions of our whole Life must be submitted to this Test This is most truly what we commonly call it The Great Trial The Essay that distinguishes our Alloy and True Standard and it is in the good Success of this Trial that we are to expect the greatest Fruit of all our Studies In order to make a true Judgment of Life we must of necessity inform our selves what sort of Conclusion it hath For the End compleats and crowns the Work and as a Good Death is an Honour to our whole Life so an Ill one casts back Infamy and sullies all that went before You can never give a Just Character of the Player till his Part be at End and the Case of Common Life is so far the same that the Management of the Last Act is incomparably the most difficult of any that belongs to either of them Epaminondas one of the Bravest Men that ever Greece bred when his Opinion was asked To which of the Three he thought the Preference due Chabrias Iphicrates or Himself made answer That this was a Question incapable of being resolved For says he the Man that would determine justly of such a Competition for Honour must stay till he hath seen how we all Three dye The Reason is evident because every other Action of a Man's Life is capable of Hypocrisy and Dissimulation but in this Last Scene alone All is Natural and no room left for Counterfeit or Disguise * Nam verae voces tum demum pectore ab imo Ejiciuntur eripitur Persona manet Res. Lucret. Lib. 3. For then Mens Words will with their Thoughts agree And all the Mask pull'd off shew what they be Creech Fortune in truth seems to way-lay us here to drive us upon this as her last Reserve to make the utmost Effort upon our Virtue and in one moment overturn all that Character and Credit which we have for many Years with infinite Toil and Anxiety been setting up Oh what a Triumph it would be then to make a Man expire with Laberius his Exclamation †Nimirum hâc die unâ plus vixi mihi quà m vivendum fuit I have lived this one day more than it was for my Honour and Advantage to have lived So truly as well as wisely so every way worthy of Solon was
make the best of Life and all its Advantages slipt through your Fingers what Loss do you sustain in parting with it What would you do with it any longer If you could be trusted on still the Talent would lye unimproved Observe to this purpose the Reasoning of the Poet. * Denique si vocem Rerum Natura repente Mittat hoc aliquoi nostrûm sic increpet ipsa Quid tibi tantopere est Mortalis quòd nimis aegris Luctibus indulges quid mortem congemis ac sles Nam si grata fuit tibi Vita anteacta priorque Et non omnia pertusum congesta quasi in vas Commoda persluxere atque ingrata interiere Cur non ut plenus Vitae conviva recedis Aequo animoque capis securam Stulte quietem Sin ea quae fructus cunque es periêre profusa Vitaque in offensu ' est cur amplius addere quaeris Rursum quod pereat male ingratum accidat omne Nec potius Vitae finem facis atque laboris Lucretius Lib. III. If Nature should begin to speak And thus with loud Complaints our Folly check Fond Mortal what 's the matter thou dost sigh Why all these Fears because thou once must dye And once submit to strong Mortality For if the Race thou hast already run Was pleasant if with Joy thou saw'st the Sun If all thy Pleasures did not pass thy Mind As through a Sieve but left some Sweets behind Why dost thou not then like a Thankful Guest Rise chearfully from Life's abundant Feast And with a Quiet Mind go take thy Rest But if all those Delights are lost and gone Spilt idly all and Life a Burthen grown Then why fond Mortal dost thou ask for more Why still desire t' increase thy wretched Store And wish for what must waste like those before Nor rather free thy self from Pains and Fear And end thy Life and necessary Care Creech Lucret. But besides that we are accountable for the Use of Life while we have it and our Profuseness does but inflame the Reckoning the longer time we have allowed us to Mispend it in we must remember that according to what was urged a little before Life it self is a debt This is as the Principal Sum put into our Hands to Traffick with but such as we should always be ready to pay down upon the Nail whenever it shall be called in again and He who is the Owner and Giver may Demand it the very next Hour How then can you Argue against the Condition of Your own Obligation How can You falsify Your Trust and Act against Your Engagement and Your Duty It is most unreasonable to Shuffle and Flinch and Kick against these Pricks because by Death you ease your self of a mighty Charge and Trouble You make up your great Account and pay in that vast Sum for which you stood responsible and which while in your Custody was liable to great Loss and Hazard Dying is a general thing Every Body does it And can You take it Ill not to be Exempted Do You expect to be the Single Instance the Sole Reserve from Universal Nature to Enjoy a Privilege by your self a Privilege never yet seen nor heard of in the World What unparallel'd Folly and Presumptuous Madness is This Or why should You be afraid to go where all the World goes where you will find innumerable Millions of Men who have taken up their Residence before you come and whither you will be followed by as great a Number afterwards How singular an Affectation is this Death is equally certain to All and therefore it cannot be Unreasonable nor Unjust with respect to You for Equality is the first constituent part of Equity and no Man will be forgotten or overlook'd in this Distribution * Omnes eodem cogimur Omnium Versatur Urna Seriùs ocyus Sors exitura c. Horat. Od. 3. Lib. 11. In the same Road All travel on By All alike the same dark Journey must be gone Our Blended Lots together lye Mingled in one common Urn Sooner or Later out they fly c. IIId Miscell The Third Resentment I mentioned upon this occasion is the Contempt of Death Contempt of Death Good if upon a Good Account and This is a Mark of a Brave and Generous Mind This frequently proceeds from exalted Judgment and strength of Reason and is more peculiarly the Virtue of a Publick Character Elevated Fortune and a Life full of Difficult and Weighty Affairs For to Persons in such Circumstances many Accidents may happen for which no Man ought to scruple Dying and several Prospects present themselves of Things so valuable that they deserve to be preferred even before Life it self Let Other matters succeed how they will This at least is a constant Rule That a Man ought always to be fonder and have a greater Regard for Himself than for a Life led in hurry and publick Business which shews him as it were always in a full Theatre and exposes him to the View and Censure of all the World He must consisider himself not only as a Spectacle but as a Pattern to Mankind and remember That One of the Incumbrances of Honour and Dignity is a necessary Obligation to shine brighter than Common Men to render his Virtue more conspicuous to those below him and to do Things exemplarily Good and Great though it happen to be at the Expence of All that the World calls Dear To such Persons many times the same Methods of safety are denied which private Men might make use of without any reflection upon their Prudence or their Duty They must by no means suffer any diminution of their Honour but when driven to a pinch must Risque and Sacrifice their Lives and trust the Event to Fate The Great Man who cannot command himself so far as to Despise Death is not only made thereby incapable of doing any Gallant and eminently Good Action but he lays himself open to more than ordinary Dangers by this Timorous Spirit and Behaviour and Those too such Dangers as threaten most what requires his best care to preserve For while his great Concern is to preserve his Person and see that Life be under Covert his Duty his Honour Virtue and Probity lie naked and exposed and run a mighty hazard for want of Courage to Protect and Stand by them The Contempt of Death is in effect the very Principle to which the Boldest and most Renowned Exploits are owing the most daring Attempts whether in Good or Ill Designs He that hath Conquered the Fear of Death hath nothing more left to terrify him He hath it in his Power to do what he pleases and may at any time make himself Master of Another Man's Life because he is already Master of his Own And as this Contempt is the true Source of Generosity and undaunted Firmness in Action so is it likewise the very Spirit and Life that quickens and supports that Resolution from whence they proceed Hence Calmness and Constancy
did Pomponius Atticus and Tullius Marcellinus those Two Gallant Romans and Cleanthes the Philosopher who Dyed all Three almost alike For resolving to Fast Themselves to Death that so they might get rid of a very painful Distemper that had made Life a Burthen and finding their Abstinence to prove the Best Physick and instead of Killing them to Cure their Disease They would not desist even upon this Recovery but Finished their Design and took great Satisfaction in Observing the gradual Decays of Nature and by what Steps and Methods Death gained ground upon them Among These Fearless Men we may reckon Otho and Cato too who after resolving to Kill Themselves and all necessary Preparations made in order to it just as they were going to put their Design in Execution took a sound sleep Thus preserving their Spirits from any Disorder or Confusion which the Prospect of Approaching Death was no more able to cast them into than any trifling little Accident in Human Life would Discompose a Man of Temper and Judgment The Fourth Quality is the Affection of a Great and Generous a Firm and Resolute Mind Desire of Death which hath been often and with general Approbation practised by Persons of unquestionable Magnanimity and eminent Piety But then they have restrained this commendable Desire of Death to Two particular Cases The First of These which seems most agreeable to Nature and upon that account may justify such a Desire is a Life of extreme Calamity and Distress of perpetual Uneasiness and exquisite Pain Or an Apprehension of some Death more Scandalous more Torturing more Insupportable than That which at present they should undergo In a word a Condition so Deplorable that there is no place left for Hope no possibility of Remedy or Redress Then Death is desired as a sure Retreat and quiet Harbour from the Waves and Storms of a troublesome Life the Best and most effectual Relief for weary and wasted Nature the only Refuge and Support of Slaves harassed and ill Treated and as the Case then stands the supreme Happiness a Man is capable of It is I own an Argument of Weakness and Littleness of Soul to sink under Misfortunes but it is as sure an Instance of Folly to cherish and be fond of them And in my poor Judgment it is high time to Dye when all Circumstances fairly computed there is a great deal more Evil than Good in Living For as throwing away one's Life rashly and inconsiderately is against Nature so likewise is the taking pains to Preserve it to our own Loss and chusing to Live in Misery and Torment When therefore Providence hath reduced us to such a lamentable Condition as This God will not sure be Angry that we wish a Release Some Persons have run the Point so high as to tell you That Men ought to Dye to avoid the Pleasures and Temptations which are highly agreeable to Nature And if so how much stronger and more cogent are the Reasons for avoiding Pain and Grief this way which are of all things in the World the most contrary to Nature There are in all Appearance several Incidents in Life worse and much more formidable than Death Such as a Man had better Dye than continue under many Circumstances in which if it were left to any Wise Man's Choice he would infinitely rather quit the World than stay longer in it So far is Life it self from being a sufficient Compensation for all the Evils possible to be endured in it Hence it was that when Antipater threaten'd a great many terrible things and severe Revenge upon the Lacedemonians Refusal if they did not submit presently and comply with the Terms he sent them They replied That he did not yet drive them to absolute Necessity for if the Sufferings he threatned were worse than Death they would chuse That as the more desirable of the Two And it is a Saying usual with the Philosophers That a Wise and a Good Man lives as long as it is fit he should and not as long as possibly he can Which is the Care of those only who sacrifice their Virtue their Reputation their every Thing that is most valuable and dear to lengthen out their Term and gain though it be but a little Respit from Death Again Death is much more at Command and in our Disposal than Life is or can be There is but One Passage into the World and our Entrance into it must be assisted by the Will of Others Our Ways out again are Infinite and our Departure hence needs no Consent but our Own And the more chearful and contented we are at our leaving it the more becoming and reputable is our Exit We may want Lands and Revenues sufficient to maintain us while Living but no Man can want enough to receive him when Dead This is a Freehold which neither Poverty nor Prodigality can alienate No Man is so despicable but he may have the Life of any other Man at his Mercy no Place so secure none so strong as to be inaccessible to Death for as the Tragedian observes most truly * Ubique Mors est optimè hoe cavit Deus Eripere Vitam nemo non homini potest At Nemo Mortem Mille ad hanc Aditus patent Senee Thebais Acts. 1. Through all the spacious Tracts of Air Seas Land Death Omnipresent Death is still at hand The numerous Ills that wretched Mortals wait Kind Heaven with Pity saw and did create This always near this ever sure Retreat Courage and Strength Wisdom and Virtue All To Vice and Cowardice a Prey may fall The Base and Weak may take our Life away The Strongest can't detain or force its Stay The Privilege of Escape none can refuse Death hath Ten thousand plain and easy Avenues The most valuable Present that Nature hath made us and That which really renders all the Complaints we utter in our melancholy Moods without Excuse is the Trusting us with the Outlets of Life and leaving the Keys in our own hands Why then Vain Man dost thou find fault with the World It detains Thee not If thou livest in Uneasiness thank thy self thy own Cowardice is to blame for it For he that hath but the Resolution to Dye needs no more to set him free and perfect his Deliverance The Second Case wherein the Desire of Death is most practicable and most commendable is purely Religious when Men have entertained such strong and lively Apprehensions and those Apprehensions have kindled such eager Wishes of a Future State that Death is longed for with great Impatience because This is look'd upon as a Gain and mighty Advantage the Seed from whence a Rich Crop shall spring up to a better Life the Passage to the Seats of Bliss and Inlet to Full and Perfect Happiness the Storehouse where We and all our Earthly Treasures are safely deposited to be produced with vast Improvement at the Resurrection These are Things of that Moment and Infinite Value to us that a firm
People than One's Self and a Symptom of a Vainglorious Humour which is greedy of Fame even at the Moment we Expire and reproaches Us with Vanity rather than brings any real Advantage to Mankind in common Now Dying is not an Act of Society but of One single Person and therefore the Rules for Regulating our Behaviour in it are Personal At such a time a Man hath enough to do to mind his own Business and the Thing he is chiefly obliged to attend is to Comfort and Support himself in this last great Conflict without troubling himself with the Affairs or the Censures of other People for he is that very Moment putting himself out of the Dominion of Common Fame and going to a Place where what the surviving World says will neither reach nor concern him That in a word is the Best Death which is most Private where a Man hath greatest opportunities of Recollecting himself and going out of the World Quietly without any troublesome Attendance or Observation The usual Ceremonies of our Friends and Relations being by and giving Their Assistance in the last Struggles of Life is exceeding Troublesome and Inconvenient One Disturbs your Sight with an Object that had better be away Another your Ear with some Impertinent Discourse a Third your Mouth by forcing upon you some fruitless Medicine or Sustenance and All together Croud and Confound and perfectly Stifle the Dying Man Then their Tears and Groans and Lamentations are more Tormenting than all the rest if they be Real and proceed from Affection and Concern they melt one down break one's Courage and Resolution and cut one to the very Heart If they be Formal only and put on for Decency or Design they raise one's Indignation and provoke a very unseasonable Passion in the very midst of Agonies and Convulsions Several very Considerable Persons have been so sensible of this Inconvenience that they have contrived industriously to Dye at a distance from their Relations on purpose to be out of the way of it And sure That which moves many People to desire the contrary is very ridiculous For what can be more Childish and Senfless than to please one's self with moving the Compassion of Friends and Acquaintance and be proud that a great many People express a tender Concern for what we Endure We cannot but commend Firmness of Mind and a Hardy Virtue in encountring Misfortunes We exhort our Friends to it when it is their Own Case and upbraid them with Weakness if they take it too tenderly and yet this very Virtue we hate and accuse as inhuman and wanting in Affection when the Calamity is Ours Then They who were formerly chidden for resenting their Own are reproached if they are too afflicted and do not perfectly sink under Our Sufferings We condemn their Complaints for what they feel and yet we cannot allow them so much as to be patient under what they only see This is unjust unreasonable and foolish to the last degree And certainly a Wise Man when sick should be very well content at least if not much better pleased with the Composed Countenances and resigned Behaviour of all the Friends that assist in his Extremities CHAP. XII The maintaining a True and Uninterrupted Tranquillity of Spirit which is the very Crown and Glory of Wisdom And the Last Head of this Book A Quiet and Contented Mind is the Supreme Good the utmost Felicity Man is capable of in This World This is that Rich and Noble indeed that inestimable Treasure which the Wise Men of Old with so much Labour and Application sought after the Fruit of all their Travels the End of all their Studies the Sum and Complement of all their Philosophy and This is the very Reward of all the Pains and the Crown of all the Wisdom to which I am now Instituting my Scholar in this Treatise But This like other Excellencies is frequently misunderstood and therefore to prevent any such Errors at present I must first acquaint you That the Quiet I now speak of does by no means consist in a Retreat from the Noise and Clutter of the World Leisure from Business Time at Command no Cares to disturb one a Delightful Nice and uninterrupted Solitude full of Ease and Plenty or in a profound Neglect and Oblivion of what is done Abroad Were this the Case what an infinite Number of happy Persons should we have Careless and Idle Women Slothful and Insignificant Fellows Cowards and Coxcombs the Sensual and Luxurious would have this Blessing at Command For if want of Thought and Business give a Title to it Theirs is indisputable and what the Wise aspire after and think a Prize sufficient for a whole Life's Study These attain to by a much easier way This then is the first Principle we are to go upon That Multiplicity of Business or Having nothing to do neither of them constitute or destroy take from or contribute to the Tranquillity we are now speaking of But This is a Decent and Beautiful a Gentle and Mild an Equal and United a Firm and Pleasant Composure of Temper Such a Steadiness of Mind as neither Business nor Leisure neither Prosperous nor Adverse Fortune no Turn of Time or Chance can disturb or change exalt or depress For This is the Property and * Vera Tranquillitas non concuti Character of true Tranquillity Never to be shaken but to continue immoveable and unconcerned always in humour and always the same The next Consideration upon this Occasion is By what Methods a Man may rise up to this Sedateness and Elevation of Soul how we shall attain and when attained how we shall preserve and maintain our selves in it And for This we need only refresh our Memories with what hath been already delivered in this Second Book For They are the Rules by the Observation and careful Practice whereof we may hope to gain our Point And therefore for the Reader 's Ease and better Convenience I will here very briefly repeat the Substance of them They consisted you remember of Two sorts First such as either carry off or prevent all those Qualities that are Obstructions to our Improvement in this Happiness And 2dly Such as furnish and adorn the Mind with such Virtues as tend to the Increase and Conservation of it Those Things that are aptest to hinder or to disturb the Ease and Quiet of the Mind are Popular Opinions and Common Prejudices which notwithstanding they have made themselves almost Universal are yet for the most part False and Groundless and a Man would wonder which way Notions could get so much Credit which have so very small a Stock of Argument to set up upon The next Impediment to be removed arises from our Passions and Desires for These indulged quite spoil and break our Temper they make us Nice and Squeamish Humoursome and Difficult and These are Qualities utterly inconsistent with Contentedness Now These Passions and Appetites are kindled and put into motion by the Two contrary
Chapters containing the Creation and Fall of our first Parents the VIth VIIth VIIth and IXth giving an Account of the Deluge and Preservation of Noah's Family there remain but four more before the Call of Abraham and in those the Succession from Adam to Noah the Dispersion of Noah's Posterity for peopling the World and the Occasion of that Dispersion are contained 'T is true some things are inserted which to Us seem of less moment but besides that some account may in reason be given why they should be mentioned the Holy Spirit who indited these Books was the best Judge of That But it is also true that several other things as considerable as This are omitted likewise which we do not upon that score disbelieve such particularly as Those of Times stated and Assemblies convened for the Publick Worship of God and certainly it is as necessary and as important at least to expect a Revelation for the Solemn Service of God as for any particular Mode of Serving or Addressing to him I have now laid before my Reader the State of the Case as They who alledge Human Invention for Sacrifices have put it and in the Answer to those Arguments have given some for the Contrary Opinion That the Authorities on that Side are considerable is acknowledged but the General Sense of the Christian Church seems to incline to Divine Institution And the most reasonable account of this Matter if I apprehend it rightly stands thus That Almighty God instructed Adam how he would please to be worshipped and Adam trained his Family and Posterity both by Example and Instruction in the same Solemn Methods of Serving and Addressing to God That from the Time of a Redeemer's being promised Expiatory Sacrifices were both instituted and practised partly as an Intimation to Men of their own Guilt and the final Destruction they deserved and partly as a Shadow and Prefiguration of that Vicarious Punishment which God had promised to admit for the Sins of Men in the Redemption of the World by the perfect Sacrifice of his Son That as no Age of the World can be instanc'd in when God did not afford Men some visible Signs and Sacraments of his Favour and the Covenant between Him and Them so the Ages before the Institution of the Jewish Law which abounded with very expressive and particular Significations of this kind had Sacrifices for that purpose That the Heathen Sacrifices were not pure Inventions of Men but Corruptions of a Divine Institution Which being propagated to all the Offipring of Adam was differently received and depraved by the Uncertainty of Tradition long Tract of Time the Artifice of the Devil and Mens own Vicious Affections Of which whoever reads the Apologies for Christianity will find Proofs in abundance and be convinced that the Pagan Idolatry was built originally upon the Worship of the true God vitiated and perverted and misapplied For we must in reason be sensible that the likeliest and most usual way by which the Devil prevails upon Men is not by empty and groundless Imaginations or Inventions perfectly new but by disguising and mimicking the Truth and raising erroneous and wicked Superstructures upon a good and sound Bottom It is therefore it seems at least in my poor Opinion most probable that the Jewish Ceremonies were indeed adapted to the Egyptian and other Pagan Rites which the Israelites had been acquainted with and were not then in a Condition to be entirely weaned from But withal that those Pagan Sacrifices were Corruptions of the old Patriarchal not entirely mere Inventions of their own but Additions only and Extravagant Excrescencies of Error to which the Truth and Positive Institution of God first gave the hints and occasions For though it can very hardly be conceived how Sacrifices should be of mere human Motion yet there is no difficulty in supposing that the Thing once Instituted and once Established might be abused and depraved to very prodigious and abominable purposes As it was no doubt very early in that universal degeneracy to Idolatry from which it pleased God to rescue Abraham and his Posterity One very Remarkable Circumstance contributing to the strength of this Opinion is that almost every where the Ceremonies in the Act of Oblation seem to be very much alike which is very Natural to an Exercise and Institution derived down from One common Head and originally sixed by a Positive Command but scarce conceivable of an Invention merely Human where Men in all likelyhood would have run into as great Diversity and thought themselves as much at Liberty as they do in the Affairs of Common Life But especially the Sacrificing Beasts by way of Atonement obtained universally and the Imagination of Their Blood being necessary and effectual for Pardon Which I confess if a Dictate of Reason and Nature only is certainly the strangest and most remote from any present Conceptions we are able to form of the Dictates of Nature of Any that ever yet prevailed in the World And therefore This is scarce accountable for any other way than from the Promise of a Redeemer and Sacrifice to come which the Sacrifices of Beasts were in the mean while appointed to represent That such an Institution agrees very well with all the Ends of Sacrifice is not to be denied For the Death of the Beast though not personally felt by the Offender would yet give him a full and very expressive Idea of the fatal Consequences of Sin and the Acceptance of that Life instead of his own which was forfeited and by that Act of Sacrificing acknowledged obnoxious to Divine Justice was a lively representation of the Mercy of God But still the Apostles Argument is founded in Reason and may be an Appeal to all Mankind It is not possible that the Blood of Bulls and of Goats should take away Sin And therefore not only Eusebius in his Xth Chap. of Demonstrat Evang. Lib. I. ascribes this Worship to Divine Inspiration but Aquinas says that before the Law Just Men were instructed by an Inward Instinct after what particular manner God would be Worshipped as they were afterwards under the Law by External Precepts So Plato says That no Mortal Capacity can Know or Determine what is fit to be done in Holy Matters and therefore forbids the Alteration of the Established Rites and Sacrifices as Impious And the Testimonies of St. Chrysostome and Justin Martyr Taylot's Ductor Dubit B. II. Chap. 3. N. 30. have been thought to mean not so much that all Sacrifice was a Dictate of Nature as that some Circumstances relating to it were left to the Dictates of Man's Reason So that when God had taught Adam and his Posterity that they should worship in their several Manners and what he would please to accept The Manner and Measure and such like considerations were left to Choice and Reason and Positive Laws In short the Religion of our Hearts and Wills our Prayers and Praises might be natural and the result of meer Reason but
after all those wonderful Exploits this was not the least wonderful that he should have the Use of his Understanding so perfect as to call upon God to restore him those Bowels again and so dye This I thought not amiss to hint and let them look both to the Truth of the Story and the Justice of the Commendition who have entitled these Books to an equal Authority with the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament That Instance of the Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus I do not understand for if it refer to those mentioned 2 Macc. VI. 10. they seem to have been thrown headlong from the Wall by the hands of Executioners But if they had done it themselves their Case had been somewhat more Pitiable but not more Imitable than that of Razias Those of Pelagia and Sophronia are indeed extolied but yet St. Jerom who in one place makes the preserving of Chastity an Exception and the only reserved Case from what I quoted out of him just now against Dying by one's own hand in Persecutions says in another place without exception Epist ad Marc. That God receives no Souls who come without his orders Deus non recipit Animas quae se nolente exterunt è corpore And whether this Case of Theirs was a Call notwithstanding the Advocates and Applauses they have found is greatly to be questioned For what is the Chastity God requires Is it not that of the Mind Could not God have restrained even those lascivious Intentions Does not Eusebius in the very same Chapter wherein he relates this Act of Sophronia delivering her self from Maxentius Euseb Eccles Hist. L VIII Ch. XIV particularly tell of a Christian Lady at Alexandria who not being any way to be conquered by Maximin he would not so much as Kill her for her obstinacy nor indeed Force her Person but in the Conflict of Rage and Lust at last only Confiscated her Goods and sent her into Banishment But supposing God had permitted the soul Act yet so long as the Mind was unblemished here had been no Guilt but rather a double Martyrdom If you say they might possibly suspect that they should in the Commission of the Fact have been polluted with sinful Inclinations 'T is easy to Answer That this is but a Fear but a bare Possibility and if an Act be Otherwise and in the general Unlawful the bare avoiding a possible Sin cannot make it lawful to break a Command and by going against God and Nature 1 Cor. X. 13. 2 Cor. XII commit and chuse a certain Sin He has promised That he will not suffer his Servants to be tempted above that they are able and declared that our Weakness can never be so great but that his grace is sufficient for us with many other gracious Promises which it is a great fault in us to distrust even in our greatest Straits and Necessities And to deliver our selves by Methods contrary to his Laws is to distrust them for we are to expect the Assistance of his Grace and the Protection of his Providence in the use of those Means and observance of those Rules he hath given us And therefore I cannot conceive how the fear of falling into Sin only can possibly render that Action Lawful which otherwise and generally speaking is it self a Sin and Unlawful Methinks therefore we should do well in this Case to distinguish with our Saviour in the Parable of the Unjust Steward and as he commended the Wisdom of that Man without approving his Injustice so we may allow all possible Praise to the Gallantry and Constancy of these Female Martyrs without allowing that the Course they took to preserve their Virtue Tom. 1. Front Ducae 628. compared with Comment on Gal. I. 4. was strictly regular and good And thus St. Chrysostom seems to have done who notwithstanding the great Encomium given of Pelagia in one place yet speaks of this Act of dying by one's own hand in very severe Terms in another and declares without exception that the Christians had all such Persons in abhorrence and that they were more guilty before God than any other murderers And some of those Instances which were thought hard to condemn the Vindicators have not well known how to acquit otherwise than by a presumption of a particular Impulse of God which was for that Time and Action a Dispensation to the General Law So St. Augustin of Sampson Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat qui per illum miracula faciebat The same Spirit which wrought Miracles by him gave him a Secret Command to do this thing And Lipsius speaking of these very Women says Monitum aut Jussio Dei hîc quoque praesumenda Lip Manuduc ad Philos Stoic Cap. XXIII That a Command or at least some Instinct and Direction from God is to be presumed in their Case as well as Sampson's and he had St. Augustin's own Authority he says for this presumption All which when duly considered as it will not warrant us to censure these Persons as to their Eternal State so neither will it warrant our Imitating such Actions or arguing from thence in defence of such Behaviour or for the Extenuating the Sin of Self-murther For whatever they might be in Themselves 't is sure they are no Pattern to Us and if God see sit to Allow or the Church to Commend their Zeal it will still become us to observe and beware of the Irregularities of it The Examples which follow of Cities destroying themselves rather than they would lie at the Mercy of the Conquerors whatever appearance they may have of Fortitude and Gallantry yet as to the point of Conscience and Lawfulness they are certainly blameable and fall under the same Censure which is afterwards given of Cato and others Page 294. N. 3 4. The Custom of Marseilles and the Isle of Ceô Valer. Maxim Lib II. Cap. VI. F. 7 8. where Persons willing to Dye made no scruple of doing it having first obtained the Judgment and Approbation of the Senate and by Poison kept on purpose and prepared at the Publick Charge is only a Permission and Allowance and does by no means take off the Guilt and Injustice of making our selves a way except only in that single Point that here the Publick is not injured having expresly consented to the loss of that Member But in all other respects the Fact was Wicked and Abominable and is reported to have had no other foundation than Affliction or Extreme old Age or in general a Weariness of Life Nor will the next Argument hold concerning the Desire of Death for supposing that whatsoever a Man is allowed to desire he is likewise allowed to procure to himself which yet is not universally true yet this Desire it self is faulty when it grows into Impatience and is not content to wait God's methods and God's leisure And there is great difference between meeting Death gladly and running into it between receiving our Release with
are free from Fear and Confusion and serve him for proper Orders and vigorous Action with all Imaginable Readiness and Address If his own Side be Superiour and the Fortune of the Field rest there his Duty is to repress and Check their Eagerness to prevent their Scartering and Disorder by too fierce and obstinate a Pursuit For in this Case he ought to be Apprehensive of a Turn which hath often happened that the vanquished may take Heart again when they feel themselves hard press'd and by making a desperate Push rally upon and rout their Conquerors For Necessity is a furious Mistress and puts Men upon very violent Methods * Clausis ex desperatione crescit Audacia cum Spei nihil est sumit arma Formido When Men are surrounded with Death Despair emboldens them and after Hope is lost Cowards turn Stout and Fear it self takes up Arms. Rather therefore let him open a Passage and facilitate their Flight but least of all must he sufter his Men to fall upon the Booty and while they are employed in rifling and all in Disorder endanger the being made a Prey themselves Victory when obtain'd must be used with Moderation and Prudence for Victory it self is not always Safe if it be stained with Barbarity and brutish Usage and put the Enemy out of all Hope it may turn to very ill Account and add to our Danger For †Ignaviam Necessitas acuit sâ—epe Desperatio spei causâ est Gravissimi sunt morsus irritatae necessitatis Necessity and Ill Treatment give an edge to the dullest Soul even Despair sometimes produces Hope and no Bite is so Keen as That when Extremity is provoked and makes her Teeth meet On the other Hand as it is more Humane so it is really more Advisable and Safe to use beaten Foe gently to leave Room for Hope and encourage Overtures of Peace not to ravage his Country nor make Havock and Desolation wheresoever we come For Rage and Fury are very sierce and dangerous wild Beasts and therefore we should take care not to let them loose A Wise General will likewise behave himself with Temper and Modesty upon his Successes for Insolence is most unbecoming a Man conversant in War most absurd in one who cannot but have been upon that Account acquainted with the Inconstancy of Fortune and ought to remember its Ebbings and Flowings how quickly it rolls over to another Shoar how strange those Revolutions are by which Prosperity sometimes takes its Rise out of extreme Adversity and on the Contrary final Ruine begins at Great Good Fortune That some Men are drown'd with Two Foot of Water and lost when they esteem themselves most safe That more die of Surfeits than of Hunger and some have â‚ Magnam Felicitatem concoquere non possunt Fortuna vitrea est tunc cum splendet frangitur O infidam Fiduciamâ— saepe Victor victus not Stomachs strong enough to digest a plentiful Meal of Happiness That Fortune is Perfect Glass and aptest to be broken when it is clearest and finest And therefore all Confidence in it is Faithless and Vnsafe and the Conquerour frequently taken Captive in the midst of Security and Triumph If you are beaten it is an Instance of Wisdom to know it to examine well your Circumstances and consider what your Loss is And never think to stifle your Misfortune or Fancy that This is nothing All will be well again and no body know it for such Hopes are trifling and vain and the Contrivance of suppressing the News of your Defeat is Childish and Ridiculous 'T is only to commit the carrying of it to uncertain Rumours which represent nothing truly and will make the Matter Ten times worse You must therefore apply your self to a full and serious Consideration of the Case for how will you ever be able to find out a Cure if you do not first search to the bottom of your Disease After this It will become his Courage to entertain better Hopes to refresh his Forces with all imaginable Diligence to call in fresh Succours and make new Levies and put good sufficient Garrisons into all his Places of Strength And after all if Providence be still contrary as indeed sometimes it is so far from seeing fit to prosper that one would almost imagine it perfectly sets it self against the justest Arms and most commendable Undertakings there is always one Remedy left for no Man can be denyed the Privilege of lying down in the Bed of Honour And sure a Decent and Reputable Death is much rather to be chosen than a Life of Contempt and Reproach And thus we have gone through the Second Head of this Subject concerning Military Matters excepting only that there is One Objection arising upon it which some scrupulous People may think necessary to be resolved And That is whether Subtilty and Deceit Feints and Stratagems are lawful Methods and how far they may be used Some are absolutely against them and decry them in all Cases whatsoever They tell you no Circumstances can justifie a Practice so contrary to Virtue and Truth and unworthy Men of Honour and Conscience and therefore that Remark of Virgil's will by no Means go down with them * Dolus an Virtus quis in hoste requirat Courage and Cunning both the Laurels claim A Foe is Priviledg'd that very Name Protects Deceit and Stratagem from Shame We find Alexander the Great so exceeding nice in this Punctilio that he would not so much as take the Advantage of a dark Night but declared he scorn'd a stollen Victory †Malo me Fortunae pigeat quam Victoriae pudeat I had rather have occasion to be sorry for my ill Fortune than to be ashamed for my good Success Of the same generous Temper were the old Romans They sent back the Schoolmaster of the Falisci who proffered to betray them and the Treacherous Physician to Pyrrhus who was ready to poyson him They always pretended to Virtue and down-right Honesty dealt fairly and above-board disclaim'd and discountenanced all their own Country-men who gave themselves a Liberty of doing otherwise reproached the Greeks and Africans with breach of Faith and turned their Craft and Cunning into a Taunt and a Proverb * Quae salvâ Fide Dignitate paratur They made it a Principle That those only are Conquests indeed which are gain'd by Dint of Courage by honest and just Methods and such as cast no Blemish upon the Conqueror's Honour But as for those which are the Acquisition of Subtlety and Stratagem they are neither generous nor reputable nor safe nor lasting For those who are beaten upon these Terms do not look upon themselves to be fairly vanquished and the effect of that is what the Historian observes †Non Virtute sed Occasione Arte Ducis se victos rati Ergo non Fraude Occultis sed palam armatum Hostes suos ulcisci They impute their Defeat to a
and Brawling and contemptuous Usage for none but Slaves He that is once accustomed to these will come to very little But Reason and Argument the Gracefulness of the Action the Imitation of excellent Men the Honour and Respect and universal Approbation that attend their doing well the pleasing and generous Satisfactions of one's own Mind which result from a Sense of having done so and the Deference paid by others to such Persons and Actions The Deformity of an ill thing the Representations of its being unworthy and unbecoming a Reproach and Affront to Human Nature the Shame and Scandal the inward Upbraiding and Discontents and the General Dislike and Aversion it draws upon us how despicable and little it makes us appear both in our own Eyes and the Esteem of the World These are the Defensive Arms against Vice these the Spurs to Virtue that influence and quicken up all Children of good Tempers and such as give us any tolerable Hopes of making significant Men. These we shall do well to be perpetually ringing in their Ears and if such Arts as these prove ineffectual all the Methods of Rigour will do but little Good upon them What cannot be compassed by dint of Reason and Prudence and Address will either never be compassed by dint of Blow or if it be it will turn to very poor Account But indeed there is no fear of Disappointment if such Methods are taken in time and the Corruptions of Vice be not suffered to get beforehand with us For these Notions are commensurate and Proper to the Soul and the most natural that can possibly be while it is preserved in its Primitive Innocence and Purity I would not be mistaken in all this As if it were any part of my Intention to countenance or commend that loose and effeminate Indulgence which admits of no Contradiction no Correction at all but makes it a Principle to let Children have their Humour in every Thing for fear of fretting and putting them out of Temper This is an Extreme every whit as extravagant and as destructive as the other Such Parents are like the Ivy that certainly kills the Tree encircled by it or the Age that hugs her Whelps to Death with mere Fondness 'T is as if when we see a Man drowning we should stand by and let him sink for fear the pulling him out by the Hair of the Head should hurt him Against this Foolish Tenderness it is that the wise Preacher inveighs so largely and so smartly Prov. xiii 24. xix 18. xxiii 13 14. Ecclus xxx 8 9 12. He that spareth the Rod hateth his Son but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes Chasten thy Son while there is hope and let not thy Soul spare for his crying With-hold not Correction from the Child for if thou beatest him with the Rod he shall not die Thou shalt beat him with the Rod and shalt deliver his Soul from Hell An Horse not broken becometh Headstrong and a Child lest to himself will be wilfull Cocker thy Child and he shall make thee afraid Bow down his Neck while he is young lest he wax subborn and bring Sorrow to thine Heart And all this Advice is very consistent with what I recommended before for Youth must not be suffered to run wild and grow Lawless They ought to be contained in Discipline and good Order but then this Discipline should be so tempered and managed as becomes a Spiritual Human and reasonable Discipline and not fly out into Rage and Fury as if we were dealing with Brutes who have no Sense or with Madmen who have lost their Senses and must be bang'd into them again And now it may be seasonable for us to proceed in the Consideration of those Particulars mention'd lately Advice for forming the Mind and the Rules for Instruction and Education suited to each of them The First of these Particulars was said to consist in exercising sharpening and forming the Minds of young People And here we might take Occasion to lay down a great Variety of Directions But the First and Chief and indeed the Fundamental Rule of all the rest that which regards the Aim and End of all this painful Toil and which I am the more concerned to press and inculcate because it is very little observed but by an Epidemical and fatal Mistake Men are generally fond of the quite contrary Course this Rule I say which I would urge and presume to be infinitely the most concerning and material of any is That Men would employ the greatest Part by much and make it in a manner the Whole of their Business and Study to exercise and improve and exert That which is our Natural and Particular Excellence to brighten and bring to light the Treasure hid in every Man's breast rather than to heap up and make Ostentation of that which is a foreign Growth To aim at Wisdom rather than Learning and the quaint Subtilties of Speculative Knowledge to strengthen the Judgment and consequently give the true Bent and Turn to the Will and the Conscience rather than fill the Memory and warm the Fancy in a Word That they would labour to make the Persons committed to their Charge Prudent Honest and good Men and think this better Service and infinitely higher Accomplishments than the making them Nice Florid Learned or all that which the World calls fine Scholars and fine Gentlemen Of the Three predominant Parts of the Reasonable Soul Judgment is the Chief and most Valuable Book I. Chap. 19. as was shewn at large in the Beginning of this Treatise to which I refer my Reader But almost all the World are of another Opinion and run greedily after Art and acquired Learning Parents are at an infinite Expence and Children themselves at infinite Pains and trouble to purchase a Stock of Knowledge and yet Tacitus his Complaint may be ours at this Day That the Excess of Learning is our Disease and as it is in all other Excesses the World is not the better but the worse for it For in the midst of all this Fruitless Care and Charge they are in little or no Concern for that which would come at a much easier Rate the breeding them so that they may be Prudent and Honest and fit for Business Now though this Fault may be so general yet All are not Guilty of it upon the same Principle Some are blindly led away by Custom and imagine that Wisdom and Learning are either the same thing or very near of Kin to one another but to be sure that they constantly go together and that one of them cannot possibly be attained without the other These Men are under an innocent Mistake and deserve to have some Pains taken with them for their better Information Others are wilfully in the Wrong and know well enough the Difference between these Two But still they will have artifical and acquired Knowledge whatever it cost them And indeed as the Case stands now with our Western Parts
curb to hold them in and prevent the wild and furious sallies of vice unrestrained or else a rebuke and chastisement the rod of an Affectionate but Provoked Father to reduce and reclaim them that they may be more considerate and mindful of their duty hereafter and abandon utterly those courses which have cost them so much smart and pain Thus it is with our minds as with our bodies and the health of both is consulted by the same applications These sufferings are like the breathing of a Vein and seasonable Physick sometimes made use of as preservatives to prevent the gathering of ill humours and divert them another way at other times as correctives and restoratives to purge the corrupted mass and carry off a disease already formed To the Obstinate and Incorrigible they are a Punishment and Plague a Sickle to cut those down speedily whose Iniquities are ripe for destruction or else to make them more lingring and languishing spectacles of vengeance And thus you may plainly discern very excellent and necessary effects of the troubles Men are used so bitterly to complain of such as may abundantly convince us how erroneous that opinion is which looks upon such dispensations as evils and ought to prevad upon us to entertain them with Patience and a becoming temper of mind to take them in good part as the instances and operations of the divine justice and not only so but to welcome them gladly as the useful instruments and sure pledges of the tenderness and love and careful providence of God and especially using our utmost diligence to benefit under them and to answer the intention of that wise and kind being in whose disposal all these things are and who distributes them according to his own good pleasure and as they may be most suitable to every Man's occasions ADVERTISEMENT Of External Evils considered in themselves particularly ALl these Evils which are many in number and various in their kinds are so many privations of some contrary good for so much indeed is implyed in the very name and nature of evil Consequently the general heads of evil must answer and be equal to the several heads or species of good Now these may very properly be reduced to seven Sickness and Pain for these being Bodily indispositions I join them together as one Captivity Banishment Want Disgrace Loss of Friends and Death The good things we are deprived of in the forementioned Circumstanc's every one sees very plainly to be Health Liberty our Native Countrey Wealth Honour Friends and Life each of which we have had occasion to treat of at large in the foregoing parts of this Treatise All therefore that remains to be done at present is to prescribe such Antidotes against these as are proper to them respectively and that very briefly and plainly without any nice or formal Reasoning upon the Case CHAP. XXII Of Sickness and Pain IT hath been observed in the beginning of this Treatise Book 1. Chap. 6. that Pain is the greatest and in good truth the only evil attending this Mortal Body of ours the most sensible the most insupportable that which is least to be cured least to be dealt with or asswaged by consideration But still though this be not altogether so capable of advice as most other afflictions yet some Remedies there are drawn from Reason Justice advantage and usefulness imitation and resemblance of great persons celebrated for their illustrious Virtue and that branch of it which consists of Patience and these such as they are I shall just propound to my Reader 's Consideration First then the enduring what is tedious and troublesome is a necessary incumbrance of life and charged in common upon all living creatures upon Mankind most evidently and especially And it is by no means reasonable that providence should work a Miracle for our sakes and exempt us only How absurd is it therefore to fret and perplex our selves because that hath hapned to one Man in particular which might and may happen every moment to every Man without exception Nay it is not only general and common but natural too We are born to it and cannot in any equity and justice hope to be exempted for indeed should we cease to be subject to it we must cease to be Men. Whatever is a fixt and irreversible Law of our Creation ought to be entertained with meekness and moderation For we entred into life upon these terms and the conditions of humanity expresly indented for are old Age and Infirmities Decays and Diseases Anguish and Pain There is no possibility of avoiding these things and what we can never get clear of it will be our best Wisdom to settle a resolution of making the best of and to learn how we may go through with it * Confide summus non habet tempus dolor Si gravis brevis si longus levis If the pain be long it is but moderate and consequently very supportable and a Wise Man will be ashamed to complain of any thing less than extremities If it be violent and exceeding acute it is but short and we should not repine or be driven to impatience for a suffering which is quickly over And yet this must of necessity be the case for nature cannot sustain it self under the continuance of extream Torture There must be an end either of that or of the Patient in a little time and which of these two soever be the conclusion of it as to the suffering part the matter comes all to one and therefore let this give us courage and comfort Consider again that these sufferings can go no deeper than the Body we are not injured our very selves every real injury takes off from the excellence and perfection of the thing but now Sickness and Pain are so far from derogating from and doing any real prejudice to us that on the contrary they furnish matter and put occasions in our way for a more noble exercising of Virtue than any that we owe to Ease and perfect Health And surely where there is more occasion of praise and Virtue there cannot be less good If the Body be what the Philosophers usually call the instrument of the mind why should any one complain for this instrument being applied to its proper use and worn out in the service of its proper master The Body was made on purpose to serve the Soul but if every inconvenience which befalls the Body shall disorder and afflict the mind the order of nature is quite inverted and the Soul from thenceforth becomes a servant to the Body Would you not think that man unreasonably querulous and childish who should cry and roar and take on heavily because some thorn in the hedge as he passed by or some unwary passenger had spoiled or torn his Clothes A poor broker who was to make Money of the Suit might be allowed some concern upon such an occasion but a Gentleman and one of substance and condition would make a jest of it and