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
cry to laugh and other Expressions of Want and Grief and Pleasure The Reasonable and Intellectual Soul does the very same thing in Its Capacity And Thus it acts not by virtue of any Reminiscence or Recollection of any Knowledge it had before with this Union with the Body as Plato fondly imagin'd a Notion which proceeds upon the supposal of another State in which the Soul pre-existed before its Entrance into or the Formation of this Body Nor does it owe this Power to Knowledge receiv'd in at the Senses and acquir'd by Their means upon Use and Observation as Aristotle conceives who represents the Soul at the Birth to be a Perfect Blank utterly void of all Characters or Images but ready to receive Impressions of any kind But it seems rather to discharge this Office by the Original Strength of its own Native Powers It Imagines Understands Retains Argues Reasons Concludes of it self without any Instruction or additional Helps at all This Assertion I must own seems more difficult to comprehend than the Former and we can more readily assent to such a Native Aptitude in the Vegetative and Sensitive than we do in the Intellectual Soul It is manifest too that Aristotle's Authority lies in some Degree against the Thing And therefore to satisfie all these Difficulties I will allow this Matter a more particular Consideration when we come to discourse of the Intellectual Soul distinctly There remains yet one Point more concerning the Soul to be enquir'd into It s Separation Twofold Natural which relates to its Separation from the Body Now This may happen different ways and be of sundry kinds The only Usual and Natural Separation is by Death Only herein is a mighty difference between Other Animals and Mankind that when the Rest die their Soul dies too agreeably to that Rule in Philosophy That when the Subject-Matter is corrupted the Form is perfectly lost though the Matter still remain Whereas the Soul of Man is indeed separated from his Body by Death but by no means lost or annihilated So far from Perishing that it remains entire and unhurt as having the Privilege of an Immortal and Incorruptible Nature There is not in the World any One Opinion which hath been more universally entertain'd more eagerly embrac'd more plausibly defended more religiously stuck to I may well say Religiously since this Doctrine is in truth the very Foundation of all Religion than That which asserts the Immortality of the Soul All this now is meant of an External and Publick Profession for alas it is but too manifest and too melancholy a Truth and the prodigious numbers of dissolute Epicures abandon'd Libertines and prophane Scoffers at God and a Future State bear Testimony to it That what Pretence soever the Generality of the World may make of receiving this Doctrine in Words and Speculation there are but very few who express an inward Sense and serious Belief of it by living like Men that believe it indeed Of that practical Assent I shall take occasion to speak more largely hereafter In the mean while give me leave to lament that so little and so poor Effects appear of an Opinion capable of producing so many and so noble For certainly there is not any one Point whatsoever the Persuasion whereof can bring greater Benefit or have a stronger Influence upon Mankind It may be objected I confess that all the Arguments which Humane Discourse and meer Natural Reason endeavour to establish it by cannot amount to a Demonstration But it must be confess'd that there are several other things which Men are content to yield their Credit to upon far more weak and insufficient Suggestions And whereinsover Reason falls short it is abundantly supply'd by Revelation which as it is the Best so is it the Proper Evidence in Matters of this kind But yet to shew the Importance of this Doctrine even Nature herself hath implanted in all Mankind a strong Inclination to think it true For it is natural for us to desire the legthening out nay the perpetuating our own Existence And no Reflection is more uneasie than That which attempts to persuade us that we must once cease to be This Disposition is interwoven with our very Frame and hath given Birth to another no less general than it self which is That anxious Care and impatient Regard for Posterity that takes such fast hold on every Man of us Nor wou'd I be so far misunderstood as to have it thought that this Disposition of Mind is the only Humane Foundation upon which our Belief of the Soul's Immortality stands For there are Two other Moral Arguments in particular which give it great Credit and to say the very least of the Case render it exceeding probable The First is that Hope of Glory and Reputation and the tender Care of preserving a Good Name when we are gone nay the Thought and Endeavour that our Fame shou'd be Immortal Now though I cannot but condemn this sollicitude of Vanity when Men pretend to place their Happiness in the Opinions of other People after themselves are dead yet the marvellous Regard and universal Concern Mankind express for it seems to say that Nature inspires those Desires and Expectations And Nature we know is a Wise Agent and does not use to cheat Men with Hopes which are altogether impossible and vain Another Reason not easie to be got over by Them who oppose this Doctrine is That common Impression that Those Crimes which are committed in secret or which otherwise escape the Observation and Punishment of Civil Justice and the Vengeance of Man are still reserv'd to a farther Reckoning that Almighty God supplies the Defects of Temporal Judicatures and hath a severe Judgment in store for such Offenders as Those cannot extend to And since we find by frequent Instances that many Enormities of this kind are not made the Marks of the Divine Vengeance in The Present World it is a good Consequence of all the Idea's we can reasonably entertain of God that He shou'd pursue the Guilty Wretches into another World and chastise them as they deserve even after Death And now I wou'd be glad to know what greater Moral Assurance can be expected for a Subject of this kind than that Humane Nature disposes every Man to look forward to it to desire and to think it probable and that the Consideration of the Divine Justice represents it as a thing not only greatly probable but absolutely necessary This last Reflexion will lead us to the Discovery of Three different Kinds and Degrees of Souls all which become proper Objects of the Divine Justice Nor need we credit it upon that Account only but even Natural Reason the Order and Harmony of the Universe will persuade us that such a sort of Being and so Immortal as we have been describing the Humane Soul is requisite to make the Series of the Creation Beautiful and Complete Of these Three sorts we may observe that Two are in Extremes The One consisting
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
they vend it without more to do Allegations indeed have their Uses and proper Seasons they are absolutely necessary in controverted Points where the Cause is to be decided by Authorities But then they ought to be used with Moderation and in Measure and good Care taken that they be home to the purpose that Prudence be used in the Choice of them for generally the Fewer and the Weightier to be sure the Better they are For it was his Opinion that of all the Three Manners of Expressing our Thoughts This was the least valuable As for the Third That indeed was infinitely the best and the Persons who make it their Method are by much the greatest and most significant Men. Antiquity and Authority were thus far of his side The Ancient Homilists being so many Examples of it in whose Writings and Orations you very seldom or never find a Quotation and in truth the old Authors of all Sorts and Professions seem to make sound Reason and good Sense their Business This being the proper the generous Food for entertaining Men desirous of Knowledge and of distinguishing Minds This relishes and shews more of Judgment and Understanding which are Nobler and more Exalted Parts of the Mind than Memory Lastly This is infinitely the most Free and Noble in it self and more Delightful and Improving to Hearers Readers and the Person who makes Use of it too than any other Method whatsoever For by this Men are rather made Wise than Learned and more accustomed to examine and make a Judgment of things Consequently the Will is directed and the Conscience informed this way whereas the rest are good for nothing but to stuff his Memory and Imagination with other Peoples Notions or little trifling Niceties This Account I thought not improper to trouble the Reader with because from hence he will guess what he is to expect in this Treatise and see withal what kind of Tast our Author had in Matters of this Nature As for what relates to his Temper Manners Conversation and Actions whether in Publick or Private I shall need to say only thus much That he made it his Constant Business to render them conformable to those Rules and Maxims contained at large in this Second Book of the following Treatise and was very successful and very accurate in the Undertaking What Persuasion and Church he was of his Three Verities abundantly declare as do likewise his Christian Discourses which were printed since his Death and make a convenient Volume by themselves How strict and conscientious he was may appear from this single Instance That though he were possest of several Theologal Canonries one after another yet he would never be prevailed with to resign any of them in Favour of any Person nor to name his Successor for fear of giving Occasion to the Censure of having upon private Respects put in an unqualify'd Man and One who was not worthy to fill such a Post But he constantly gave them up freely and clearly into the Hands of those Bishops who had collated him The last thing I shall mention upon this Occasion is his Last Will which was made and written all with his own Hand in January 1602. and after his Decease registred in the Office at Condom In This he first returns most humble Thanks to God for all the Mercies and Benefits which by His Bounty he had enjoyed in his Life-time begs him most earnestly for his infinite and incomprehensible Mercies Sake in the Name of his Well-beloved Son and our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ and for His Merits shed and multiplied upon all his Members the Elect Saints to grant him Favour and full Pardon for all his Offences to receive him for his own Child to assist and conduct him with his Holy Spirit during his Continuance in this World that he might ever remain in a sound Mind and the true Love and Service of Him his God and that at the Hour of Death he would receive his Soul to himself admit him into the Society and sweet Repose of his Well-beloved ones and inspire all his Holy and Elect Saints with a Pious and Charitable Disposition to pray and make intercession for him Then proceeding to the Legacies he bequeaths among other things To the Church of Condom provided his Corps be Interr'd there Two Hundred Livres Tournois upon Condition that every Year upon the Day of his Death High Mass shall be once said in his Behalf and Absolution once pronounc'd over his Grave He gives moreover to the Maintenance of poor Scholars and young Girls Two Thousand Four Hundred Crowns the yearly Income hereof to be distributed for ever the one Moiety to Three or Four Scholars the other to Three Four or Five young Maidens at the Discretion of his Executors of which he constituted Five The Master of St. Andrew's School and Rector of the Jesuites at Bourdeaux for the time being his Heir and Two of his Friends the Three Last to name some other Persons to succeed in this Trust after their Decease with This Qualification that they nominate such only as are well known and reputed for their Abilities Honesty and Charity And that any Three of these in the Absence of the rest might manage and dispose things as they should see convenient Likewise he gives and bequeaths to Mrs. Leonora Montagne Wife to the Sieur de Camin Kings Counsel in the Parliament at Bourdeaux half Sister to the late Sieur de Montagne the Summ of Five Hundred Crowns And her Husband Monsieur Camin he constitutes his sole Heir He paying the Charges and Legacies contained in his Will amounting in the whole to about Fifteen Thousand Livres Tournois in the Gross Summ. What hath been thus lightly touched upon is a sufficient Evidence how Religious and Conscientious a Person Monsieur Charron was that he feared God led a pious and good Life was Charitably disposed a Person of Wisdom and Conduct Serious and Considerate a great Philosopher an eloquent Orator a famous and powerful Preacher richly furnished and adorned with the most excellent Virtues and Graces both Moral and Divine Such as made him very remarkable and singular and deservedly gave him the Character of a Good Man and a good Christian such as preserve a great Honour and Esteem for his Memory among Persons of Worth and Virtue and will continue to do so as long as the World shall last OF WISDOM THE FIRST BOOK Which consists of the Knowledge of a Man 's own self and the Condition of Humane Nature in general An Exhortation to the Study and Knowledge of ones self The Introduction to this whole First Book THERE is not in the World any Advice more excellent and divine in its own Nature more useful and beneficial to us nor any at the same time less attended to and worse practis'd than that of studying and attaining to the Knowledge of our selves This is in Truth the Foundation upon which all Wisdom is built the direct and high Road to all Happiness And
divided or else we must suppose the Accident only to be transported and born away and the Substance to remain fixed in its proper place and therefore we have reason to admit any other Solution of the Case rather than that of an Actual Separation As to the Third and Last sort which was term'd Humane the Thing is clear beyond a Doubt that there is no real Separation in it since all that can be pretended to in this Case amounts to no more than some present Stupefaction and Disorder by means whereof such of the Soul 's Operations as are Visible and External cease in appearance and are suspended for some time What becomes of this Soul and in what State or Condition she continues after that Real and Natural Separation made by Death Wise Men have not been able to agree nor does this Point fall properly within the Compass and Design of the present Treatise The Transmigration of Souls advanced by Pythagoras hath found in some parts of the Notion especially tolerable good acceptance with the Stoicks the Academicks the Aegyptian Philosophers and some others Not that they all admitted it in the same Sense and Extent or to all the Purposes he intended it shou'd serve Some allowed it only so far as it might contribute to the Punishment of Wicked Men who might suffer by being turn'd into Brutes in a manner like that miraculous Infliction upon Nebuchadnezzar Dan. iv as a Scourge from God for his Vanity and Atheistical Pride Some again and those of considerable Eminence and Authority have imagin'd that Pure and Pious Souls upon their quitting this Body are translated into Angels and the Black and Guilty ones transform'd into Fiends and Devils Methinks it were more prudent to soften the former Branch of this Notion as our Blessed Saviour hath done already by saying Luke xx That they neither marry nor die any more but are as the Angels and are the Children of God Some again have fancied that the Souls of the wickedest and most profligate Wretches after a very long Term of Time and Punishment utterly perish and are reduc'd to their First Nothing But Humane Reason is and must needs be for ever in the Dark about all such Matters And therefore these Disquisitions shou'd be constantly referr'd to their proper Topick of Instruction For as nothing but Revelation and Religion can inform us truly in what concerns a Future State so they have not been wanting to declare what is full and sufficient for our purpose and therefore it is our Duty as well as our Wisdom to receive this without more ado and stedfastly to rest in it ADVERTISEMENT IN the Second Particular which concerns the Essence and Nature of the Soul the Author makes a very odd Distinction between Matter and Body and tries to reconcile the Opinion of Those who say the Soul is Immaterial with Theirs who affirm it to be Corporeal The Result of which is That the Souls of Men do not consist of gross and palpable Matter but of a Body thin and subtle even beyond all Imagination And therefore in the Sequel of this Discourse he continues to make a Difference between the Souls of Men and those of Brutes even in this very Point of Materiality it self But now Since Body and Matter strictly and Philosophically taken come all to one and since No Subtlety or Fineness of Composition makes any Body the less a Material Substance Since again the Humane and Intellectual Soul hath evidently several Faculties and performs several Operations such as Cogitation Volition nay even Sensation it self which are neither inherent Qualities of Matter as such nor what any Motion or Modification whatsoever can render it capable of Monsieur Charron's Subtlety of the Body will not help the Cause at all For Aethereal or Coelestial Bodies are as truly Matter as any of the Coursest and Grossest whatsoever And the Notion of Matter is not to be taken from its Purity or Foeculency its Palpability or its Fineness but from its Essential Properties such as Extension and quantity Divisibility Being purely Passive and Acting only as it is acted upon It s being subject to the Laws of Motion and the like These now are the inseparable Properties of every thing that is Body and from hence it must needs follow that all Bodies whatsoever are equally distant from equally unqualify'd for Thought and Perception and all other Operations and Faculties which are the proper and distinguishing Characters of a Reasonable Soul Concerning which if my Reader desire farther Satisfaction than the Nature of a single Advertisement allows me room for I referr him to Dr. Bentley's Second Sermon against Atheism where he will find this Argument handled at large When once such an Absurdity as This hath been shewn to attend that Notion which maintains the Soul's Corporeity it is to very little Purpose to urge us with the Difficulties concerning the mutual Intercourse of our Souls and Bodies or what the Soul suffers either in her united or in her separate State Some of which are capable of the same Resolutions with those given in the Case of Brutes by those Philosophers who allow them Sense and are not the Actions or Affections of the Intelligent but of the Sensitive Powers And for Others which are superiour to Humane Discourse we acknowledge our Ignorance and resolve all into the sole Will and wonderful Wisdom of our Almighty Creator He hath not told us what is the Band of Union between these Two nor how this Communication and intimate Correspondence is kept up and carry'd on And we think it is impossible for any to acquaint us with this Process except Him only who contrived and constituted it But Ten Thousand such Objections weigh little when balanc'd against a Flaw in the very Foundation Every thing at this rate may be disputed and Universal Scepticism be advanced for we are able to trace nothing through all its Motions and Operations But an Argument ab Absurdo made evident in the First and most substantial Principles is allowed even in that Science which professes the greatest accuracy in Arguing to be a Just and Legitimate Demonstration against any thing which such Principles are alledged to establish See more concerning the Immateriality of the Soul and her Operations in the Advertisement at the End of the Tenth Chapter CHAP. VIII Of the Soul in Particular and First of the Vegetative Faculty HAving thus given a General Description of the Soul in the Ten Points already insisted on I come in the next Place to treat of it somewhat more distinctly by considering its respective Principal Faculties apart And the most convenient Order as I apprehend will be to begin with the Lowest first and so proceed from the Vegetative to the Sensitive from thence to that of Imagination and Appetite and last of all to the Intellectual which is the Supreme of all the Faculties and that which is the true and peculiar Character of the Humane Soul Under each of These
Nature boasts of are Memory and Foresight and these Advantages and Prerogatives of our Species we so pervert as to render them the Instruments of our Unhappiness ‖ Futuro torquemur praeterito multa bona nostra nobis nocent timoris tormentum memoria reducit providentia anticipat nemo praesentibus tantum miser est The Past and the Future both put us upon the Rack many of our Advantages do us an Injury Memory calls back our Terrours and Fore-thought antedates them No Man bears the present Burden and no more Now what can express a more importunate desire of Misery than the not staying till the Calamity comes but going out to meet and find to seek and to invite it to hasten its Approaches towards us This is like the Men that kill themselves for fear of Dying which is out of Curiosity or Weakness to pull down upon us what we most apprehend And thus we do not only wait for our greatest Evils and real Inconveniences with a foolish Impatience but oftentimes terrisie and torment our selves with the Expectation of Those which perhaps would never reach us at all These Persons take great pains to be miserable before their Time nay to be doubly so by the sense of the Calamity when upon them and by long Premeditation at a distance which is a Thousand times worse than the Calamity it self * Minus afficit sensus fatigatio quam cogitatio The Fatigue of Sense is much less in enduring than the Torture of the Mind in expecting The real Existence of Misery is it seems too short and transitory and therefore the Mind must give it Birth and lengthen out its Life and entertain it self with it before hand †Plus dolet quà m necesse est qui ante dolet quà m necesse est He that afflicts himself before he needs is sure to be afflicted more than he needs Beasts are secure from such Wretchedness and Folly and are in this respect much beholding to Nature for not having given them the tormenting Faculties of Wit and Memory and Foresight like ours Caesar used to say that the best Death was that which was least thought on And there is no doubt but the Pomp and Expectation of Death is frequently more painful and terrible than the Thing it self It is not here any part of my Design to discourage or reflect upon that Premeditation which Philosophy and Religion require of us For This is the very Tempering that hardens the Soul and makes it Proof against all Accidents and Assaults and a Place shall be reserved for recommending this particularly But what I would explode Book II Ch. 7. 11. is that Apprehension of Evils to come which is always Poor-spirited and sometimes Groundless and ever Fruitless which troubles and sullies the Soul with Black Thoughts deforms its Beauty disturbs its Quiet and embitters all its Joy And sure it is much better to be absolutely surpriz'd than thus fore-warn'd Rather than think thus of Future Evils never think at all But setting aside this Antedating of Evil the very Anxiety and Care and perpetual Hankering after Future Contingences of any kind the Sollicitude of our Hopes the Eagerness of our Desires the Misgivings of our Fears are a very great Misery For besides that What is future is equally out of our power with What is past and so these Thoughts are vain we are certain to receive Detriment by that which can do us no service For * Calamitosus est animus futuri anxius the State of a Mind always in pain for what will happen hereafter is certainly mâ—st deplorable It robs us of all sedate Thought destroys all that comfortable Sense and quiet Enjoyment we might have of present Advantages and makes it impossible for Men to sit down easie and satisfy'd under any Dispensations of the kindest and most bountiful Providence to them Nay Man stops not here but as if he were concern'd to furnish new Matter for that Misery Uncasie Enquiries which comes up but too thick of its own accord he cultivates and encreases it by a restless Curiosity and studious Pursuit of fresh Objects which may create or cherish his Unhappiness With what Eagerness and Pleasure does he thrust himself into Business and how inquisitive and impatient is he to discover That which if it would present it self to his View without any Trouble of his he ought rather to turn away and hide his Eyes from And this busie Temper is owing either to a Natural Restlesness disposing us to be miserable or from a vain Affectation to be Judicious and Wise and always employ'd that is in plain English to make our selves Fools and Wretches As we needs must be when our Industry to perplex our selves is so great that when we have no Business of our own to disquiet us we go abroad in quest of Troubles and officiously concern our selves with the Affairs of other People In a Word Man is under exceeding great and perpetual Agitation of Mind not only from such Thoughts and Cares as are unnecessary and turn to no account but such as are thorny troublesome and injurious to him The Present gives him Pain the Past Regret the Future Perplexity and by his Behaviour under all this one would think him afraid of nothing so much as the not being sufficiently Miserable after all his Endeavours to render himself so And may we not justly use this Exclamation O wretched Mertals how many Evils do you continually endure which might with great ease have been avoided how many more indeed are Those of your own and how few in Comparison Those of God's and Nature's making But Thus alas it is Man delights himself in Misery and is obstinate in seeking and cleaving to it He chews the Cud upon each Misfortune and takes great Pains that none should be forgotten but renews their Images daily and hourly Nothing is so frequent so familiar as Complaints and where Occasions are but light and trivial he cherishes and heightens the Resentment calls himself the most unhappy Man in the World and takes it ill not to be thought so * Est quaedam dolendi voluptas Such Pleasure does he find in indulging his Grief And sure the being so very ambitious to enhance our Misery and to get the Character of Those who excel all others in it is a much greater Misery than never feeling or knowing our Unhappiness at all * Homo animal querulum cupidè suis incumbens miseriis And yet this is that querulous Creature Man that sits with great Eagerness brooding upon his own Miseries Thus you see him abundantly Miserable by Nature and by Choice In the Remedies of Misery in Reality and in Imagination by Constraint and with Industry and Pleasure He hath too much of it in despight of all Endeavours to the contrary and yet his great Fear is that he should not have Misery enough He is always in Chase of some fresh Unhappiness and in pain
Pain and Anxiety upon our Account That They only watch for our Safety and Preservation and This makes us look upon Calamitous Accidents with Surprise but especially to be perfectly astonish'd at Death as if it were a most strange Thing how That should break in upon us notwithstanding so many Guards that keep Centry about our Persons and are all as we imagine concern'd to secure us from it For this among other Reasons few People ever persuade themselves that any Hour is their last but almost every Body suffers himself to be cheated with false Hopes at the very Instant of expiring And what is all This but Presumption We think our selves too significant and fondly fancy that this whole Universe must bear a part in our Death that some great and general Revolution will happen upon it that all things decay in proportion with our own Bodies and fail one another in the same Degrees They fail Us That there is no avoiding it but They must all undergo the same fatal Shock the same Dissolution that We do And in this Universal Delusion Mankind live like People upon the Water who when their own Vessel moves seem to draw Houses and Towns and Heaven and Earth along with them No Body considers that he is single and but One a very small and inconsiderable Part of the Creation One out of many Millions whom few have any Interest in and perhaps fewer yet are the worse for losing and the Matter is so far from every Body's going along with him that scarce any Body will so much as miss him when he is gone no more than a Grain of Sand diminishes the Sea-shore or the falling of a Star changes the Face of the Sky Then again Man pleases himself that the Heaven the Stars and all that Glorious Movement over our Heads and indeed the whole Frame and Order of this Material World was thus created and constituted merely for his Sake As if that Description of the Heathen were his due That * Tot circa unum caput tumultuantes Deos. so many Gods were perpetually Ambitious and contending about his single Person And this is a very extravagant Imagination indeed He is lodged here in the last and lowest Story of the World at a great distance from the Aetherial Roof a place that in comparison of the purer Regions above us may be call'd the Sink of the World where all the Lees and Dregs settle with Creatures of the meanest Condition and liable to receive all those Evacuations of Rain and Vapours which fall down upon his Head nay from These he receives his very Subsistence he lies open to Accidents that beset and oppress him on every Side and yet this poor Wretch looks upon himself as the Master and Commander in Chief of the Universe 'T is true indeed Almighty God hath given him a Dominion over some of his Fellow Creatures and it is likewise true that the rest over which he hath not the same Dominion are contriv'd for his Mighty Benefit and Covenience but it will not follow from hence that the whole Creation had no other End than his Service nor that those vast Globes of Light and so many Pure Incorruptible Bodies whose least Virtue is not distinctly known and which he must be content to gaze at with Wonder and Astonishment were fram'd and are continued in this Regularity and Perpetuity of Motion for Man only From hence it is confest this Indigent Wretch derives his Food his Maintenance and unspeakable Conveniences The Rays the Beauty the Heat of the Sun The Rain and Dew and other Distillations from Heaven cherish and sustain him and This no doubt was one Intent of the bountiful God that made them But shall we presume to determine from hence that this was the Sole Intent and Use of them Shall we call the Heavens and the Elements our Own and pretend that Their Motions are only so many Tasks for Our Profit This were as if the Begger should call himself Proprietor of the Wealth out of which he is reliev'd and the Benefits in this Case are so general so far from being confin'd to Man alone that the meanest Fowl of the Air may as well make the same Pretensions Nay in some Sense these Creatures may make them better For Man who receives Conveniences hath some Inconveniences too from the Bodies above him he hath none of them at his own Disposal he cannot understand how far their Efficacy will extend nor make any certain Conclusions what will be hereafter and this puts him into perpetual Uneasinesses and Fears and Amazements lest these Bodies should not keep their Course nor shed propitous Influences but occasion Barren and sickly Seasons and so every thing should prove Unkindly and in Confusion and under the Weight of these Apprehensions he lies and trembles for what shall fall upon him from Those very Bodies of which he vainly thinks himself Lord and Master Whereas Beasts as they receive the same Advantages of Life and Substance with our Selves so they receive it without any Disturbance of Mind or disquieting Presages of the Future yea and without any of those discontented Murmurs and Complaints at what is Past too which restless and ungrateful Man is ever bewailing himself in I conclude this Observation with that Passage of Seneca * Non nos causa mundo sumus hypemem aestatemque referendi suas ista leges habent quibus divina exercentur nimis nos suspicimus si digni nobis videmur propter quos tanta moveantur Non tanta coelo nobiscum societas est ut nostro fato sit ille quoque siderum fulgor We are not the Proper Cause of the World 's enjoying the several Seasons and their Vici ssitudes Those Things are order'd by Laws peculiar to themselves in the observance whereof the Will and Purposes of God are executed We think too highly of our selves if we suppose we are of such Worth and Consequence that such and so many Glorious Motions should be contrived merely for our sakes nor is our Correspondence with Heaven so intimate that all the use of the Stars should be to direct or to declare our Fortunes Note Some Persons since the Improvement of Astronomy have given us juster Notions of the Magnitude of these Heavenly Bodies That several of them equal and some very much exceed the Proportion of this Earthly Globe have entertain'd Notions of a Plurality of Worlds furnish'd with Inhabitants as different from Those we know as the Regions they inhabit are A Notion which I only mention upon this Occasion to hint that there may be many Uses unknown to us served by the Heavenly Bodies And because the Opinion seems to carry no Impiety at all in it but pretends to consult the Glory of God by exciting Men to a greater Admiration of his Infinite Power and Wisdom and Goodness exerted in so much a greater Variety of Creatures than what we are or can be acquainted with I thought it not amiss
Pleasure Call its Fruitions slat and insipid if you please but yet they are solid and substantial agreeable and universal They must needs be so indeed because they are Lawful and Innocent free from the Censure of Others and the Reproaches of one's Own Mind What the World calls Love aims at nothing but Delight it hath perhaps somewhat of Sprightliness and is of a quicker and more poignant Relish but this cannot hold long and we plainly see it cannot by so few Matches succeeding well where Beauty and Amorous Desires were at the bottom of them There must be something more solid to make us happy A Building that is to stand for our whole Lives ought to be set upon sirmer Foundations and these Engagements are serious Matters such as deserve and it is Pity but they should have our utmost Discretion employed upon them That Hot Love bubbles and boils in our Breasts for a While but it is worth Nothing and cannot continue and therefore it very often happens that these Affairs are very fortunately manag'd by a Third Hand This Description is only Summary and in general Terms Another more particular one But that the Case may be more perfectly and particularly understood it is sit we take Notice that there are Two Things Essential and absolutely Necessary to this State of Life which however contrary and inconsistent they may at First Sight appear are yet in reality no such Matter These are Equality and Inequality the Former concerns them as Friends and Companions and upon the Level the Other as a Superiour and an Inferiour The Equality consists in that Entire Freedom and unreserved Communication whereby they ought to have all Things in Common their Souls Inclinations Wills Bodies Goods are mutually from thenceforward made over and neither of them hath any longer a peculiar and distinct Propriety exclusive of the other This in some Places is carried a great deal farther and extends to Life and Death too insomuch that assoon as the Husband is dead the Wife is obliged to follow him without delay There are some Countries where the Publick and National Laws require them to do so and they are oftentimes so Zealous in their Obedience that where Polygamy is indulged if a Man leave several Wives behind him they Try for it Publickly and enter up their Claims which of them shall obtain the Honour and Privilege of sleeping with their Spouse that is the Expression they soften it by and upon this Occasion each urges in her own behalf that she was the best belov'd Wife or had the last Kiss of him or brought him Children or the like so to gain the Preference to themselves Th' Ambitious Rivals eagerly pursue Death as their Crown to Love and Virtue due Prefer their Claims and glory in Success Their Lords first Nuptials are courted less Approach his Pile with Pomp in Triumph burn And mingle Ashes in one Common Urn. In other Places where no Laws enjoyned any such Thing it hath been resolved and practised by mutual Stipulation and voluntary Agreement made privately between the Parties Themselves which was the Case of Mark Antony and Cleopatra But omitting This which in truth is a Wicked Barbarous and Unreasonable Custom The Equality which is and ought to be between Man and Wife extends it self to the Administration of Affairs and Inspection over the Family in common from whence the Wife hath very justly the Title of Lady or Mistress of the House and Servants as well as the Husband that of Master and Lord over them And this joint Authority of Theirs over their own private Family is a Picture in Little of that Form of Publick Government which is termed an Aristocracy That Distinction of Superiour and Inferiour which makes the Inequality consists in This. Inequality That the Husband hath a Power and Authority over his Wife and the Wife is plac'd in Subjection to her Husband The Laws and Governments of all Nations throughout the World agree in this Preeminence Et certamen habent lethi quae viva sequatur Conjugium pudor est non licuisse mori Ardent Victrices flammae pectora praebent Imponuntque suis Ora perusta viris but the Nature and the Degrees of it are not every where the same For These differ in Proportion as the Laws and Customs of the Place differ Thus far the Consent is Universal That the Woman how Noble soever her Birth and Family how great soever her Fortunes or any other personal Advantages is not upon any Consideration exempted from Subjection to her Husband This Superiority and Inferiority may well be general and be the Opinion of All when it is so plainly the Condition of All. For in truth it is the Work of Nature and founded upon that Strength and Sufficiency and Majesty of the One Sex and the Weakness and Softness and Incapacities of the Other which prove it not equally qualified nor ever designed for Government But there are many other Arguments besides which Divines fetch from Scripture upon this Occasion and prove the Point indeed substantially by Them For Revelation here hath backed and enforced the Dictates of Reason by telling us expresly that Man was made first that he was made by God alone and entirely by Him without any Creature of a like Form contributing any thing towards his Being That he was Created on purpose for the Pleasure and Glory of God his Head That he was made after the Divine Image and Likeness a Copy of the Great Original above and Perfect in his Kind For Nature always begins with something in its just Perfection Whereas Woman was created in the Second Place and not so properly Created as Formed made after Man taken out of his Substance * See 1 Corinth xi 7.8 The Man is the Image and Similitude of God but the Woman is the Similitude of the Man So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be rendred in the Sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 similis sum not Glory as we read it which is foreign to the rest of the Words and the whole Scope of that Argument Fashioned according to that Pattern and so His Image and only the Copy of a Copy made Occasionally and for particular Uses to be a Help and a Second to the Man who is himself the Principal and Head and therefore She is upon all these Accounts Imperfect Thus we may argue from the Order of Nature But the thing is confirmed yet more by the Relation given us of the Corruption and Fall of Man For the Woman was first in the Transgression and sinned of her own Head Man came in afterwards and by her Instigation The Woman therefore who was last in Good in order of Nature and Occasional only but foremost in Evil and the occasion of That to Man is most justly put in Subjection to Him who was before Her in the Good and after Her in the Evil. This Conjugal Superiority and Power hath been very differently restrained or enlarged
himself with the Event of this Engagement and be a thousand times more perplexed and mortified with any ill Success than those very Soldiers who spend their Blood and stake down their Lives in the Service In a word We must learn to understand our selves and our Condition and distinguish aright between our private and personal and our publick Capacities For every one of us is under a double Character and hath two parts to play The one external and visible but somewhat foreign and distant the other domestick and proper and essential to us Now though our Shirt be next to our Skin yet according to the Proverb we should always remember that how near soever our Shirt may be our Skin is still nearer to us A Judicious person will discharge his Duty to the Publick and fill an Office well and yet at the same time will discern the Folly and Wickedness and Cheat which a Publick Station exposes him to the practice of He will not decline the thing because it is agreeable to the Custom and Constitution of his Countrey it is necessary and useful to the Publick and perhaps advantagious to himself He will submit in many things to do as the World does because the Rest of Mankind live at the same rate and since he cannot mend the World it is to no purpose to disturb it by being singular But still he will look upon this as a matter somewhat foreign and consider this Character as adventitious and accidental not natural to him it is what he is obliged to put on and appear in but he was not born with it nor is it a part of him And therefore he will always exercise it with all due Limitations and Reservations and not so embark in Business as to be quite swallowed up in it but manage Matters so that he may still enjoy himself and be free and easy with a particular Friend or at least within his own Breast not so serve the World as to neglect and be out of a Condition to serve himself nor endeavour the Benefit of others at the Expence or Loss of a Good that is truly and properly his own CHAP. III. True and Substantial Integrity of Mind the first and fundamental part of Wisdom THE Directions laid down in the two foregoing Chapters being such Preparations as were thought necessary for disposing aright the person who aspires after Wisdom and qualifying him to make successful progress in it That is By removing the Obstructions and cleaning his Mind of Prejudices and setting it at large from the Slavery and Confinement of Popular Opinions and private Passions and also by advancing to that noble and happy Freedom of Thought and Will already described that from hence as from some advantagious rising ground he may take a full prospect and arrive at a clear and distinct Knowledge and attain to an absolute Mastery over all the Objects and Things that occur to him here below which is the peculiar Character and Privilege of an exalted and resined Soul It may now be seasonable to advance in the Method proposed at our Entrance into this Book by giving some fit Instructions and general Rules of Wisdom The Two First whereof are still in the nature of Prefaces to the Main Work necessary to be laid in the Quality of Foundations upon which to raise this Glorious Superstructure And the Former and Principal of these two designed for the Subject of This Chapter is Probity and Sincerity That true Honesty and Integrity of Heart and Life is the First the Chief the Fundamental Point of True Wisdom is an Assertion which it may perhaps be thought needless for me to give my self any great trouble in proving For in truth all Mankind agree in highly extolling and zealously pretending to it though it is but too manifest that what some do in this kind seriously and out of Conscientious regard to their Duty and the real Worth of this Virtue others put on only to set the best face upon the matter and are compelled to dissemble from Shame and Fear and the Ill-consequences of avowing the contrary Thus far then the whole World is agreed that Honesty is recommended and respected and at least complimented every Man professes to be passionately in love with it and subscribes himself its most Faithful most Affectionate and most Devoted Servant So that I may spare my self the pains of arguing in behalf of the Thing in general but I am afraid notwithstanding it will prove no such easy matter to make Men agree with the Notions of that which in my esteem is the True and Essential Honesty and to persuade the as universal Love but especially the universal practice of That which I think necessary upon this occasion For as to That which is in common vogue and usually reputed such though the World I know are generally satisfied and trouble themselves so little about understanding or attaining to any thing better that except a very few Wise Men they have no Ideas no Wishes beyond this yet I make no difficulty to affirm that it is all but a spurious and counterfeit Virtue Sham and Trick and the product of Art and Study Falshood and Disguise Now first of all We cannot but be sensible False Appcarances of it that Men are very often drawn on and pusht forward to good Actions by several sorts of Motives Sometimes such as are by no means commendable As Natural Defects and Infirmities Passion and Fancy nay sometimes by Vice and Things in their own Nature Sinful Thus Chastity and Sobriety and Temperance of all sorts may be and often are owing to a weak Body and tender Constitution which cannot support Excess Contempt of Death to Peevishness and Discontent Patience under Misfortunes Resolution and Presence of Thought in Dangers to Want of Apprehension and Judgment and a due sense how great or imminent the Danger is Valour and Liberality and Justice are often inspired and practised by Ambition and Vain-glory the Effects of good Conduct discreet Management of Fear and Shame and Avarice And what a World of renowned and noble Exploits have been owing to Presumption and Foolhardiness Rashness and Inconsideration Thus what we commonly call Actions and Instances of Virtue are in reality no better than Masks and counterfeit Appearances of it They have the Air and the Complexion but by no means the Substance of it So much resemblance there is that the Vulgar who are no Criticks in Faces may easily mistake the one for the other and so much of good there is in the Effects and Consequences of such Actions that other people may be allowed to call them Virtuous but it is impossible the person himself who does them should esteem them such or that any considering Man can either allow them this Character when nicely examined or think one jot the better of the Man that does them For Interest or Honour or Reputation or Custom and Compliance or some other Causes altogether foreign to Virtue will be found
publickly to procure Abortions when with Child but of all Married Women requiring the strictest Chastity and Fidelity to their Husbands imaginable The Marrying of Men to one another The Women going to War and engaging in Battel along with their Husbands Wives dying and laying violent hands upon themselves either at the instant or very quickly after the Death of their Husbands The allowing Widows a Liberty of Marrying again provided their former Husbands died by a Violent death but if otherwise then debarring them of that Privilege Investing Husbands with an Absolute Unlimited Uncontroulable Power over their Wives to Divorce them at Pleasure without being obliged to shew Cause to sell them off if they bring no Children to Kill them without any manner of Provocation merely by virtue of this Despotick Power and the Relation the Wife stands in to him and to borrow afterwards from other People Women to Bear Children without any manner of Terror or Complaint Killing their Childen because they are not Handsome not Beautiful in Complexion not well-Featured Crooked or ill Shap'd or without assigning any Reason at all The Feeding altogether upon Man's Flesh The Eating Flesh and Fish quite Raw the Lodging Persons of all Ages and Sexes indifferently to the Number of Ten or Twelve together Making the putting their Finger down to the Ground and afterwards pointing with it up to Heaven the common Form of Salutation Turning their Back upon the Person they Address and make a Civility to and taking it for a constant Rule never to look at the Person to whom you design Honour and Respect Observing it as a Mark of Duty to gather up the Spittle of Princes in their Hands Never speaking to the King but through a long Trunk Never cutting the Hair or Nails during their whole Lives To Shave the Hair on One side and Pare the Nails of One Hand but never to do it of the Other The Boring Holes in the Cheeks and other parts sof the Face to wear Pendants and Jewels at and the same at the Breasts and Nipples Absolutely to despise Death to welcome it with Feasting and Joy to contend and quarrel for it nay to plead and sue for it in publick as if it were some remarkable Dignity or extraordinary Favour and to look upon the granting these Suits and being preferred before other Competitors in them as a singular Honour The Esteeming it the most Honourable way of disposing their dead Bodies and much more glorious than any Burials to be Eaten up of Dods and Fowls of the Air and to be Boiled or Baked Dried and Pounded to Powder and that Dust mingled with Men's ordinary Drink Now whatever Diversion the relating such Customs as these Customs Examined and Judged or whatever wonder it may create yet if we come a little closer to the matter and once undertake to pass a Judgment upon them all then is noise and scuffle eager and endless quarrel The Common People are so over-run with Prepossession and Pedantick Folly that They according to their usual Wisdom run all down at a venture and without more ado condemn every thing for Barbarous and Brutish which is not just according to their own Palate that is which does not agree with the received Practice and Customs of their own Country For they never looking Abroad nor understanding what is done there can see no manner of Reason why their own Local Usages at Home should not be the only and unalterable Standard of Truth and Justice and Decency all the World over If you endeavour to infuse some larger Notions of These Matters by telling them That Other People of their Capacity are even with them That they are every jot as much out of conceit with Our Methods as we can be with Theirs they cut you short immediately by replying You may see by that how Barbarous and Brutish they are whih is but saying the same thing over again and here they resolve to stick But now a Wise Man is more reserved and allows a greater Latitude he gives them a fair hearing at least and does not determine hastily for fear of too much warmth and wronging his Judgment and he is certainly in the right for there are really a great many Laws and Usages which at first sight appear insufferably Barbarous contrary to all the Notions of Humanity and sound Reason and yet if they were soberly considered all Passion and Prejudice apart if they did not so far approve themselves to our Judgment as to be allowed Just and Good yet it would be found that they are not destitute of all Colour of Reason but have a great deal to be said in their Vindication and Arguments plausible enough to excuse Other Men's Practice thoughnot enough to recommend them to our Own Let us now for instance make the Experiment in those Two first mentioned which I must confess seem extremely odd and the most distant that can be from all the Apprehensions we commonly entertain of the Duty and Affection we owe to Those who brought us into the World and were at the Trouble and Expence of our Sustenance and Education These Customs then are the Killing one's Parents when they come into such particular Circumstances and Eating their dead Bodies The People who receive this Custom look upon it as the highest Testimony of Piety and Respect the last and fullest Proof of their Tenderness and sincere Affection The great design they have in it is Compassion to their old decrepit Parents whom they think themselves under the strictest Obligations to deliver from a state of Misery and Infirmity a State that renders them not only utterly Useless to Themselves and to every Body else but even a Trouble and a Burthen a State of Languishing and Decay of Uneasiness and Pain that makes Life a Weariness and a Torment to themselves and all about them and therefore they think That Death which gives them Ease and Rest and puts them past Suffering any more a very profitable Exchange a Gain which they might be glad to chuse and thankful for receiving When they have done them this Kindness as they esteem it the next Proof of their Dutiful Regard is to give them the most honourable Burial in their power And for this purpose they make their own Bodies their Repository lodging these Carkasses and precious Relicks in their own Bowels thus in some measure conveying a new Life and recruiting their perished Nature by Digesting and turning to Nourishment this dead Flesh of their Parents and Transubstantiating it into their own living Flesh These Reasons are not so very Contemptible at least I am apt to believe they may somewhat abate that Detestation which the prejudice of a contrary Opinion is apt to produce in the generality of People A Man that considers impartially will I believe allow That the Persons who have been brought up to this Custom may think it so plausible a one that it will not be easy to bring them off from it Nay that it
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
eagerly greedily embrace Death and upon every little Pett take Sanctuary here without any manner of Judgment or Distinction how far the Provocation ought to carry them We must therefore upon second Thoughts confess that this Mixture is made with Discretion sit to preserve us in a due Moderation so as neither to be fond of Life nor peevishly weary of it and so again as neither to be afraid of Death nor to court and hasten to it both the One and the Other are tempered with Sweet and allayed with Bitter enough of the One to recommend and make it Tolerable and so much of the Other too as will keep it from being the Object of any Passion in Extremes So necessary are the Ingredients so just the Proportions so skilful and withal so tender of our Good the Hand that mingled them Now the Remedy which the Vulgar prescribe against the Fears I have been condemning is much too dull and stupid For They advise a Man to banish all Uneasinesses of this kind by striving to forget the Occasion of them and drawing off the Mind to something else 'T is upon this Account that you find them always bid their Friends never Think of Death and can by no means bear to hear it Named But sure This is for many Reasons a very improper Prescription For in the first place such an odd careless Temper as This is somewhat so contrary to a Man of Parts and Judgment somewhat so like a State of Thoughtlessness and Insensibility that none but the Ignorant and the Heavy seem capable of the Medicine Application and Good Sense cannot Doze away a Life at this rate But if every Body could bear the Physick yet what Operation what good Effect is to be expected from it where would all this End at last and what a miserable Account should we find when we come to the upshot and feel how dear this Course hath cost us For do but imagine the Condition of a Man surprized by Death the Tears the Agonies the Groans and Lamentations the Rage the Despair in a word the inexpressible Confusion of being seized all on the sudden by a Merciless Invincible and Unseen Enemy These are such dreadful Circumstances that Wisdom sure gives much safer and better Advice in directing Men to stand their Ground to face their Enemy to observe his Approaches and provide for the Combat Nay rather indeed to encounter him perpetually by following a Method the direct contrary to That of the Vulgar which is by fixing their Eyes and Thoughts steadily upon Death to converse and grow intimately acquainted with it to render it gentle and tame by Familiarity and long Use To carry the Idea and the strongest Representations of it that we can possibly form constantly about with us To harden our selves in the Expectation of it and that not only in Times of Sickness and Danger where we have reason to suspect our Selves but in our most confirmed Health in the midst of what we call Safety Death should not be the Companion of our black and sullen and melancholy Hours only but of our greatest Gaieties best Humour and most solemn Entertainments and Delights The Sawce to every Dish the Burden to every Song should be this Reflection That we are always in danger set as fair Marks and that Death is aiming at us That several others have been snatched away who thought themselves as far out of the reach of his Dart as we can suppose our selves to be now in the heighth of all our Jollity That an Accident which happen'd at One Time or to One Person may as well happen to Another And thus we are advised by the Wisest Men to check our Pleasures and abate our blind Security by imitating as well as supplying by These never unseasonable Meditations that Ancient Custom of the Egyptians who at their Feasts served up a Death's-head and that of Christians and other Persuasions too who contrive that their Burying-places shall join to their Temples or be in some other Parts the most conspicuous and frequented of any The Original whereof seems to have been That these Publick Monuments might awaken Men's Minds and preserve the Reflections and Remembrances of Death always fresh and vigorous Where Death awaits us is very uncertain and therefore we should expect to meet it every where and every moment and make such constant and sure Provision against its coming that let it steal upon us never so Cunningly never so Suddenly it may sind us always in readiness This is no such mortifying Exercise as some fondly imagine quite otherwise it rather sweetens Life and recommends its Enjoyments by setting us above the Fears and Disappointments and amazing Terrors which Worldly and Sensual Men feel and labour under It abates our Losses by foreseeing and preparing for them and it doubles our Advantages by looking upon them as Clear Gains and adding a pleasing sort of Surprize to the Fruition Thus the Poet very justly hath observed to his Friend * Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur Hora. Hor. Lib. 1. Ep. 4. While ' midst strong Hopes and Fears thy Time doth waste Think every Rising Sun will be thy last And so the grateful unexpected Hour Of Life prolong'd when come will please thee more Creech But that we may not be thought guilty of Injustice in condemning People unheard let us examine a little into the Grievances they complain of and the Excuses they make for themselves upon this occasion and then it will appear how frivolous and foolish all the Apologies are by which they would palliate their Fears and put some specious Colour upon their Melancholy Apprehensions And here you may observe throughout that Men are generally ashamed to own their being afraid to dye simply considered and therefore they bethink themselves of some sad aggravating Circumstance or other by which they hope to justify their uneasy Dread for themselves or their inordinate Grief for their Friends who have been taken from them The First of these is Dying Young and This they think a very lamentable Case for what Reflection can be more disturbing than that Death should snatch them rudely before their Time that he should crop this lovely Fruit while green and in the Bud and now down the Glory of the Field before it was ripe for the Sickle This indeed is a Complaint most usual and most becoming Mean and Vulgar Souls who measure every thing by the Length and count nothing valuable but that which lasts a great while Whereas on the Contrary we find that Things rare and excellent and exquisite in their kind are generally the most fine and subtle and subject to Dissolution and Decay 'T is esteemed a Master-piece in Art to contract a great deal into a narrow room and God and Nature have so far taken the same Method in their choicest Pieces that a Man would almost think it a Fate upon Extraordinary Persons to be short-liv'd Eminent
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
was that a Wise Man when the News of his Son's Death was brought him received it with all the Sedateness and seeming Unconcernedness that could be and only made this calm Reply I knew very well that my Child was Mortal Since then Death is a thing so Natural so Essential to all Nature in general and contributes so much to the Order and Well-being of the Whole World and since it is likewise so to your own Being and the Condition of That in particular why should you conceive such horrible Ideas why hold it in such irreconcilable Detestation In This you act in contradiction to Nature I allow indeed that the Fear of Pain is very Natural but I cannot admit the same Plea for the Fear of Death For how is it possible that Nature should ever have infused into us a Principle of Hatred and Dread against an Ordinance of her own Institution and such as she receives such a mighty Benefit from the due Execution of And as an incontestable Evidence that she does not so it appears plainly that where Nature works entire without any Depravation or Restraint there little or no Marks of this Passion are to be found Little Children for instance and Brutes who are not capable of being corrupted with Prejudice are so far from betraying any Fear of Death that they meet it chearfully and seem pleased to undergo it The Gay and Smiling Countenances of these Creatures are enough to assure us that Nature does not teach us to fear Death but we learn That from some other hand But all the Direction we have from Nature upon this occasion is to expect and wait for Death and whenever it comes to receive it with Submission and Chearfulness as considering that it is of Nature's sending and express appointment Secondly Necessary It is necessary a Sentence past for it and irreversible and Thou who distractest thy Soul with Fears and bewailest this Fate of thine art satisfied at the same time that there is no possibility of avoiding it And what more exquisite Folly can a Man be guilty of than the tormenting himself industriously when he knows 't is to no purpose Where do you find any Man so stupidly silly to spend his Time and his Breath in Intreaties and importunate Addresses to One whom he knows incapable of granting or inflexible and never to be prevailed upon for his Requests Or to knock eternally at a Door that will not cannot be opened And What more inexorable more deaf to all our Supplications than Death If any Calamities be proper Objects of Fear they are such as are barely Contingencies which may indeed but may not happen too And Those that are capable of Remedy or Prevention are fit to have our Thoughts and Care employed upon them But Those that are fix'd and must come which is the Case of Death we have nothing to do but to expect and to provide for and all that is to be done with that which cannot be cured is to fortify our Souls and resolve to endure it The Ignorant and Inconsiderate fear and flee from Death The Rash and Fool-hardy courts and pursues it The Wise Man waits its Approach and is ready to follow and obey the Summons but neither runs away from it nor advances to meet it But certainly our Lamentations are very Idle and Extravagant where they are sure to do no Good and so are our Anxieties and Fears where there are no means of Escape * Feras non culpes quod vitari non potest You must bear and not complain when the thing is unavoidable The Behaviour of David was really very prudent 2 Sam. xii and an admirable Pattern he hath set us in it When his Servants informed him that the Child whose Sickness he had express'd a most passionate Concern for was dead the next thing he did was to wash and dress himself and return to his ordinary way of Eating and usual demonstrations of Chearfulness This indeed was somewhat out of the common Road and those about him who knew no better were much astonished at his proceeding but the Account he gave of himself was solid and substantial That while the darling Infant was yet alive and consequently it was yet uncertain how God would please to dispose of him he fasted and wept because he did not know whether his Prayers might be heard and God would be gracious in letting the Child live But as soon as he understood it was dead he changed his Course because all Hopes of that kind were then past Life could not be recall'd nor his Tears and melancholy Humiliations be of any farther use in this Case I know well enough that foolish People have a Reply ready for all this They will tell you that when a Thing is beyond all Remedy it is then the fittest Object of our Grief and that our Concern is at no time so seasonable as when we cannot be better than we now are But This is the very Extremity of Senslessness this compleats nay doubles the Folly It is most truly said * Scienter frustra niti extremae dementiae est That the greatest Madness a Man can possibly be guilty of is to struggle and fret himself when he sees and knows all he does is in vain Since then the Matter now before us is so absolutely necessary so unalterably fix'd so perfectly unavoidable it is not only to no manner of purpose to torment our selves with the fear of it but if we would take right Measures and make any Profit of this Consideration our Method must be to make a Virtue of Necessity and if this grim Guest will come to put on all our good Humour and prevail with our selves to receive him decently and bid him welcome For the best thing we can do is to be beforehand with him It would better become Us to make some Advances and meet Death than suffer It to overtake Us and to lay hold on That than to be surprized and apprehended by It. Thirdly Just and Reasonable It is highly agreeable to Reason and Justice that Men should dye For what more reasonable than that every thing should come to the place of its Final Rest and be safely deposited where no new Change no fresh Removal awaits it If Men are afraid of arriving at this Long Home they should not move towards it but stand still or go back again or get out of the Road But none of these are in their Power to do What more reasonable again than that you should go off this Stage of the World and make room for new Actors and a new Scene as your Predecessors made room for You If you have plaid your Part well you go off with Applause and That ought to content you If you have enjoyed your Self and the World you have had a good Entertainment enough to Satisfy and Feast your Appetite and therefore you ought to rise from Table in Good Humour If you had not the Wit to
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
Belief and stedfast Hope of them is very hardly consistent with the Fear and Loathness to dye For sure if this Principle were pursued through all its Consequences the Effect must needs be to make us dissatisfied with Life and weary of being confined here so long and at so great a distance from our Happiness Life upon these Terms should be barely supportable but Death our Choice and the Object of our Love and Desire To such Men Living must needs be a Toil and a Burden and Death an Ease and Refreshment after much Suffering and hard Labour St. Paul's Declarations and Wishes would then be in the Hearts and Mouths of all Good Men. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. i. Rom. vii which is far better To me to dye is Gain And Oh wretched Man who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Of such Efficacy I say in all Reason must these Expectatons be when duly cherished and enforc'd And I cannot but acknowledge those Reproaches upon some Philosophers and Christians both Ancient and Modern to have a great deal of Justice in them whom Men called Hypocrites and Publick Impostors For what better Notions can be entertained of Persons profuse in the Proofs of an Immortal State and in the Glorious Commendations of a Bliss inexpressible in the Life to come and yet at the same time Pale and Shivering for Fear declining Death by all possible Means and trembling at the very Mention of its Approach though this very Thing to which they are so exceeding averse is confess'd to be the Passage into their so much admired Eternity the only Method of putting them into actual Possession of those Joys the very Hope and Reversion whereof they pretend to value above this whole World The Fifth and last particular mention'd upon This Occasion Killing ones self is only a Putting in execution that which was mention'd before For what is Dying by one's Own hand but the Gratification and Accomplishment of a Man's Desire of Death This indeed hath at first blush a good fair Appearance and seems to proceed from Virtue and Greatness of Spirit And certain it is that the Allowance and the Practice of it hath been both Frequent and Antient Many Instances of this kind live in Story Persons eminently Great and Good of almost every Countrey and every Religion Greeks and Romans Egyptians Persians Medes Gauls Indians Philosophers of all Sects nay Jews too as is evident from the Fact of old Razias who hath the Honourable Character of The Father of his Countrey given him 2 Mac. xiv and is constantly mentioned with Commendation of his Virtue Another Instance the same History gives us likewise in those Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus 2 Mac. vi who after they had Circumcised their Children cast Themselves down headlong from the Wall with them Nay not only Jews but Christians too witness those Two Holy Women Pelagia and Sophronia Canonized for their Piety and Courage the former of which with her Mother and Sisters cast her self into a River that by drowning they might escape the Rudeness and Violence of the Soldiers and the latter stabb'd her self to prevent the outragious Lust of the Emperor Maxentius And as if single Persons were not sufficient to justify this Practice we have whole Cities and Nations giving Authority to it by their Example Thus did the Citizens of Capua to avoid being taken by the Romans thus did Astapa and Numantia in Spain upon the same account Thus the Abidaeans when hard pressed by Philip and a City of the Indians when Alexander had encamped against it This hath likewise had the yet more Authentick Approbations of Laws and Publick Sanctions and several Commonwealths have not only permitted but recommended and in some Cases brought it into a Custom as Marseilles heretofore the Isle of Cea in the Negropont and some Northern Nations in particular where the Publick Justice regulated the Times and the Methods of doing this Nor is it only upon Precedents that the Favourers of this Opinion do rely but they think it abundantly supported by Reason and particularly that several Arguments of Weight may be deduced from the former Article to justify it For say They if a Desire and Willingness to dye be not Allowable only but Commendable too if we may Wish and Pray for a Release if we may put our selves in the way of it and be glad when it is offered why may we not Give this Relief to our Selves Is the Desire it self a Virtue and the Execution of that Desire a Sin What is permitted in the Will why do you call forbidden in the Act That which I may be pleased with from Another hand why should I be condemned for from my Own Indeed why should I wait the tedious Approach of that from other means which I can at any time give to my self For is it not better to Act in this Case than to be purely Passive Is it not more Manly and Generous to Meet Death than lazily to sit still and attend its Motions The more Voluntary our Death is the more like a Man of Honour Again What Law does this offend against There are Penalties indeed ordained for Robbers and Pick-pockets but is any Man liable to them for taking his Own Goods By the same Reason the Laws against Murder do not concern Me. They provide for every man's Security against the Insults of Others See the Animadversions at the End of this Chapter they tye my Neighbour's hands from taking My Life and Mine up from taking His because this is supposed to be an Act of Violence and want of Consent in the Sufferer makes it an Injury but what is all This to the purpose or how does it render a Man guilty who voluntarily and deliberately takes away his own Life These are the Principal I think indeed the Whole of those Arguments commonly alledg'd in Defence of this Practice but then there are Others a great deal more Substantial and more Obligatory that use to be produced for the Contrary Side of the Question First then As to Authorities This Practice however countenanced by some but very few States in comparison hath yet been absolutely disallow'd and condemned by the Generality of Mankind and not only by Christians but Jews too See Joseph de Bell. Judaie L 3. C 14. as Josephus shews at large in the Oration he made to his Officers in the Cave at the Taking of Jotapata By the Generality of Philosophers and Great Men as Plato and Scipio and Others who all impute this manner of proceeding to a Defect rather than any Sufficiency of Courage and reproach it not only as an Act of Cowardice misbecoming a Brave Man but of Heat and Impatience unworthy of a Good Man For what can we say better of it than that This is skulking and running out of the way to hide one's self from the Insults of Fortune Now a Virtue that is vigorous and stanch
the same Materials a Transcript of the same Original For †Nihil tam secundum Naturam quam juvare consortem Naturae nothing is so agreable to the Dictates of Nature as to assist one who is a Partaker of the same Nature It is a Generous and Noble Act worthy a Person of Honour and Virtue to be useful and beneficial to others to embrace and improve nay to seek Opportunities of being so For the ₠Liberalis etiam dandi causas quaerit Liberal Man does not content himself with taking them when they come in his Way but he goes out to meet and takes Pains to find them And it is an old Adage that Truly Noble Blood will neither let a Man tell a Lye nor be wanting good Offices where they are Seasonable There is somewhat of Greatness and commendable Pride in doing Kindnesses as there is of Meanness in having them done to us and this may be one convenient Sense of that Saying which St. Paul ascribes to our Saviour It is more Blessed to give than to receive He that gives gets himself Honour and gains an Advantage he becomes Master of the Receiver and acquires a Right in him as on the other hand the Receiver sells his Freedom and is no longer at his own disposal The First Inventer of Good Offices says one with Ingenuity enough contrived the strongest Fetters that ever were to bind and captivate Mankind Upon this Account several People have refused to accept of Kindnesses because they would not suffer their Liberty to be entrenched upon and particularly if the Person conferring the Favour were one whom they had no Kindness for and did not care to be obliged to For which Reason it is that the old Philosophers forbid us to receive any Kindnesses from ill Men because in so doing we let them get a Hank upon us Caesar used to say that no Musick was so charming in his Ears as the Requests of his Friends and the Supplications of those in want The Motto of Greatness is Ask me And that Command and Promise gives us a Noble Idea of the Majesty of God Call upon me in the time of Trouble Psal l. 15. so will I hoar thee and thou shalt glorifie me This is likewise the most Honourable way of employing our Power and Plenty which while we keep by us and in our own private Possession are called by the mean Names of Houses and Lands and Money but when drawn out into Use and expended to the Benefit of our Brethren they are dignified with new and August Titles and from thenceforth commence Good Actions Liberality Magnificence Alms and Treasures in Heaven Nay it is not only the most Honourable but the most prudent and profitable Method of trafficking with them * Ars quaestuosissima optima Negotiatio the gainfullest of all Arts the best and least hazardous Way of Merchandise for here the Principal is secured and the Interest arising upon it rises exceeding high And to say the very truth no part of what we have is so properly our Own none turns to such a prodigious Increase so comfortable Account as that which we expend upon good Uses What lies by us is lock'd up and hid privately it lies and wasts or at least it never grows upon our Hands and it is sure to give us the Slip at last either by some of those infinite Accidents by which all such Things are liable to be snatch'd from Us or by that certain and inevitable Separation by which Death will shortly snarch Us away from Them But so much of these as is thus put out can never fail never be wrested from us never rust or decay or lie buried in Unprofitableness Hence it was that Mark Anthony when deprest and at an Ebb of Fortune so low that he had nothing but Death lest at his own Disposal cryed out that * Hoc habeo quodcunque dedi he had lost All except what he had given away And thus you see what a brave and noble and becoming Temper this Compassionate and good Natured Frame of Soul is how worthily a ready Inclination to do Good to all the World attracts the Love and Admiration of all that consider it How Amiable and Engaging how Powerful and Irresistible the Charms of Generosity are As indeed on the other Hand nothing is so Mean and Sneaking so Detestable and Despicable so Deformed and Unnatural as Hard-heartedness and Insensibility of other Peoples Misfortunes It is therefore deservedly styled Inhumanity to intimate by that Name that such People are Monsters and not Men. And as the Vices themselves so the Source and Causes of them stand in direct Opposition to each other For as Beneficence springs from Greatness and Gallantry of Spirit so unreasonable Parsimony and Hard-heartedness is the Spawn of Cowardice and Brutish Degeneracy of Soul Now there are two ways of becoming Beneficial to our Neighbours either as we minister to their Profit Several sorts of it or to their Pleasure The First procures us Admiration and Esteem the Second Love and good Will The First is much more valuable because it regards Mens Necessities and Distresses it is acting the Part of a Tender Father and a True Friend There is likewise a Difference in these Acts of Kindness themselves Some are due from us such as the Laws of Nature or positive Institution require at our Hands Others are free and what we are under no express Obligation for but the Effect of pure Choice and Love The Latter of these Two sorts seem to be more Brave and Generous But yet the Former too when discharged with Application and Prudence and sincere Affection are very Excellent and Commendable though they have the Nature of a Debt and are such as we cannot be faithful to our Duty and dispense with our selves in Now the true Beneficence or Kindness is not properly in the Gift it self Internal and External that which a Man sees and feels and tasts this is too gross a Notion and all we that can allow is that These are the Matter the Signs and the Demonstrations of our Kindness but the Thing it self is the Disposition and good Heart The Outward and visible part may be very small and inconsiderable and yet that within may at the same time be wondrous great For This may have proceeded from an exceeding Eagerness and Affection a hunger and thirst of doing good watching and contriving and seeking Occasions for it and esteeming such Actions in our Saviour's Terms One's Meat and Drink snatching them as greedily and receiving as sensible a Satisfaction and Delight from them as from the most necessary Refreshments by which this Life of ours is sustain'd A Man may have given to the very utmost of his Ability and by this means exhaust that little Store which is scarce sufficient for his own Occasions or he may part with that which is particularly valuable and dear to him These are the Considerations that enhanced the