the Bed ill made when the cause of my uneasiness is in the Body And lastly when I have reduced the Evil to its own natural size generally 't is of such a Pigmy Dwarfish growth that I can securely slight it I can master it with very little trouble and industry or at worst with a very little patience and that I may not be wanting here I look upon it as a Task I am born to as an Inconvenience that I can no more shun than any natural Defects in my Body or my Mind or than I can the Cares and Fatigues of my Calling Thirdly I labour above all things to fill my Soul with great and ravishing Pleasures to inflame it with a generous Ambition and in one word to possess it with that habitual Poverty of Spirit Meekness Purity Charity commended to his Disciples by our Lord and Master that I am generally above the buz and fluttering of these rather Impertinences than Evils of Humane Life and do often suffer them without being sensible of them but I can never often enough put the World in mind of the vast difference there is between the fits and habits of these Vertues What we could do in a pious humour that we should always do were but the weak Impression once converted into Nature the short-liv'd Passion changed into steady habit but 't is high time to pursue my Design I am almost afraid I dwell so long upon a Head that the most pertinent Parts of my Discourse may now and then look like Digression The next thing to be considered after the Cheerfulness of the Mind is Secondly The Health of the Body Life does so apparently depend on this that in the vulgar Notion it signifies much the same thing 'T is notorious Life decays and expires with the health and strength of the Body and when it is protracted after these are gone it scarce deserves the Name of Life any more than the Noise of an ill-strung and ill-tuned Instrument does that of Musick But I need not teach any Body the value of Health or press them to the preservation of the Body I should be sufficiently obliging to the World if I could teach it any Art by which they might be restored to that Blessing which it enjoyed before the Flood a long Life of many hundreds of years But I know no Art that can raise Nature above its own Laws or retrieve its Youth if it be now in its Decrepitude One thing I know that we too commonly debauch and corrupt Nature first and then load her with our Reproaches and Accusations we should undoubtedly live much longer and this Life would be more healthy and verdant that is more vital than it is did we but observe the dictates of Religion the Laws of Vertue and not prefer before them those of Lust and Fancy How much soever Men complain of the shortness of Life 't is little to be doubted but that most Men do notwithstanding shorten it themselves by some Crime or Error or other If we could consult the sickly crasie part of Mankind I mean such as are so in the middle or almost beginning of their years and demand of them what blasted their Beauty and impaired their Strength what thus violated and contaminated their Nature we should soon be resolved to what Original their Diseases were owing if at least their shame and blushes would give them leave to inform us And if we should endeavour to trace the Deaths of most of those who are gone hence before their time back to their first Cause I do not think but that our search would soon end in some Vice or Folly or other this Man drank too much the other too much indulged his Appetite one was devoted to his Lust and another putrified in his Sloth all of them in our common phrase did live too fast but in truth and propriety of Speech died too fast for since Life is nothing else but acting by Reason every Deviation from it is an Approach towards Death But to proceed 'T is not unusual to see Pride kill one Passion another Avarice and Ambition a third while to gratifie these Affections the Body is either exposed to dangers or worn out by labour Now if we can generally find the Causes of most early Deaths in Mens Vices when so little of other Mens Lives comes to our knowledge what think you should we not be able to discover if we could enter into the Retirements and penetrate all the Secrets of Mankind how many hidden Passions do gnaw the Heart how many secret Sins do waste and consume the Strength where not only Concealment excludes the Eye but a show of probity nay a real and eminent practice of some particular Vertue excludes even Suspition and Jealousie If then Immorality do often contract the term of Life 't is evident what is to be prescribed for the prolonging it Religion or Vertue is the best Physick It has often mended an ill Constitution but never spoiled a good one When did ever Chastity impoverish the Body or deflour the Face when did ever Temperance inflame the Blood or oppress the Spirits when did ever Industry or Vigilance four the Humours and enfeeble the Nerves No Crudities no Plethories no Obstructions no Assidities no Stagnations Extravasations and I know not what hard Names and harder Things derive themselves from Vertue or Religion 'T is true a Man may be Righteous over-much he may entitle his Folly his Melancholy his particular Fancy or his particular Completion or Constitution Religion and this may prove mischievous to him to his health to his strength but then this is not the fault of Religion but the Man and to speak properly this is not Righteousness nor Religion thô it be called so but it is Fancy and Folly or an ill Constitution disguised under the garb and the meen of Religion Vertue then is the most probable way to a long Life or if not so at least to a more comfortable and honourable Death for where an early Death is the Result of a Providence not a Crime we must needs meet it with less Amazement our selves and our Friends behold it with less Regret and Affliction Thirdly The third way of prolonging Life is to engage the Providence of God in its Preservation If all the Promises God has made the Vertues of a long Life did really signifie nothing I cannot see how we could put up any Request to God relating to Temporal Protection with Faith or Fervor or as much as Sincerity but if they signifie any thing then surely they must signifie that his Providence is actively imployed for the preservation of vertuous Men And how great a Security is this What can be impossible to him who is the Governour and Creator of the World in whose disposal all created Means are and in whose Power it is if these be unsufficient to create new ones To him whose unerring Laws can never miss of those ends he aims at or if they could
Humane Life OR A SECOND PART OF THE ENQUIRY AFTER HAPPINESS By the AUTHOR of Practical Christianity LONDON Printed for George Pawlet at the Bible in Chancery-Lane and Samuel Smith at the Prince's Arms in St. Paul's Church-yard 1690. IMPRIMATUR Z. Isham R.P.D. Henrico Episc Lond. Ã Sacris July 5. 1690. THE CONTENTS THe INTRODUCTION Page 1 SECT I. Of the true Notion of Humane Life CHAP. I. Life a great blessing in it self proves a great evil to some And why Happiness perfect only in Heaven 3 CHAP. II. Life what in a Natural Sense what in a Moral Life Perfection and Enjoyment inseparably united More particularly Life consists not in Sloth Sensuality Worldliness Devilishness but in the Regulation of all our Actions according to right Reason 8 CHAP. III. Inferences drawn from the former Chapter First To cultivate our Reason The use of which is more particularly insisted on with respect to three things that is The imploying our Faculties the bearing Evil and enjoying Good Secondly To renounce every thing that opposes it as Fancy Passion Example Custom Thirdly That 't is possible to be happy in every State Fourthly That a long Life is a great Blessing considered either in it self or with respect to the Life to come 25 SECT II. Of the different kinds of Life 40 CHAP. I. The Conveniences and Inconveniences of the Active and Contemplative Life The Active more necessary The Several Grounds on which men determine their Choice that is Interest Providence Inclination c. p. 42 CHAP. II. Of the Civil Life or the Active Life of a Gentleman Sect. 1. The Gentleman's Obligation to an Active Life from the consideration of what he owes to God to his Country to himself The Active Life not injurious to the Gentleman's Pre-eminence Liberty Pleasure Sect. 2. The Regulation of the Civil Life i.e. The Knowledge and Vertues necessary to this sort of Life The constancy required throughout the whole Course of the Gentleman's Life Some Vacations from Business necessary and to what ends 48 CHAP. III. Of the Trading or Negotiating Life Sect. 1. Rules relating to Success in Trade First That the Trader be Industrious Secondly that he be not above his Profession Sect. 2. Rules relating to his Religion 1st The Trade must be a lawful one 2ly It must be managed with Justice Truth and Charity 3ly It must not interfere with Religion 4ly The Trader ought to propose to himself wise and rational Ends such are a Competency for himself and Family the charitable Assistance of others a timely retirement or retreat from the bussel or distractions of too much Business 97 CHAP. IV. Of a Contemplative Life For whom this Chapter is designed What kind of Life is to be understood by a Contemplative one Sect. 1. The Ends or Reasons warranting the Choice of such a Life First Enjoyment Secondly Self-Preservation from the Assaults of Temptation Thirdly The better serving the the World Fourthly A more intire Dedication of ones self to God Sect. 2. The Conditions or Qualifications necessary to a Contemplative Life 1. A plentiful Fortune 2. A peaceable and humble Disposition 3. A good Understanding Sect. 3. The Regulation of a Contemplative Life with respect 1. To Time 2. To Place 3. To the Exercise or Imployment of a retired Life The Conclusion containing the Pleasure and Happiness of a Contemplative Life p. 125 SECT III. Of the right husbanding Life 166 CHAP. I. The usual Arts of preventing or retarding the Decays of Nature and lessening the Fears of Death exploded and better substituted in their room Physick instead of which Courage and Contempt of Death Paint c. instead of which the Beauties of the Mind Children instead of which Good Works and so forth Surviving Honour not wholly rejected but a truer Immortality preferred 168 CHAP. II. Of Lengthning Life Sect. 1. The fatality of the Period of Life refuted And Objections from Scripture from Astrological Predictions from Divine Prescience answered A sort of Fate admitted Sect. 2. Of the ways of prolonging Life First Cheerfulness of Mind Secondly Health of Body Thirdly The Protection of God and Man Sect. 3. Objections against this last Assertion from such Texts as assert the promiscuous Events of Things and from the early Death sometimes of the Righteous Answered p. 178 CHAP. III. Of improving Life or living much in a little time What is to be understood by improving or exalting Life and the Advantages of this Notion Three ways of improving Life Sect. 1. By perfecting Nature Man and Life mean things till Wisdom and Vertue stamp a value on them This Particularly exemplified with respect to Knowledge and the due Regulations of the Affections Sect. 2. By beginning to live betimes or at least immediately No Objection against becoming presently wise and happy but the Difficulty of becoming so An Exhortation addressed First To the Young Secondly To those advanced in Years Closed with a Reflection on the Day of Judgment Sect. 3. By avoiding all those things that are injurious to Life as Sloth Impertinence Remisness or Coldness in Religion Levity and Inconstancy Some other Directions deferred to the following Treatise 214 HUMANE LIFE OR A SECOND PART OF THE Enquiry after Happiness INTRODUCTION I Am not ignorant that Dedications and Prefaces if they have in them a genius of Eloquence if they sparkle with Wit and Fancy if they be enriched with Sense and animated by moving and vital Language are like graceful Accesses and beautiful Fronts to Buildings which while they raise in the Beholder a secret Delight do prepossess him with favourable Opinions of them But this being only a Continuation of a former Treatise and having little Encouragement either from my Humor or Talents to any attempt of that kind I never suffer my self to be unnecessarily ingaged in it I will therefore in this place only give a short Account of what I have performed in the first Volume and design in this In the first Chapter I shewed that Happiness was neither so great and divine a possession as to be above the Ambition of Man nor so inconsiderable as not to deserve it And next that it was not to be expected from Time or Chance Fancy or Inclination but from Reason and Industry Vertue and Religion In the second having first briefly stated the Notion of Happiness I endeavoured to demonstrate the possibility of obtaining it and to rescue so important an Opinion from the Prejudices and Objections that might stifle and oppress it In the third I just pointed out the Causes of humane misery or of unsuccessfulness in this Enquiry and the Remedies of it Having thus removed whatever might discourage or frustrate our Endeavours after Happiness I am now to proceed to a more strict and particular Examination of the Nature of it and the Ways and Methods that lead to it In which I am obliged according to the General Design or Scheme laid down in the former Volume to treat of Life Perfection Indolence and Fruition accordingly
all their Train or Retinue of Passions in the Heart or Soul Now because all Morality consists in the right use of those Blessings which our great and bountiful Author confers upon us therefore in a moral sense the true Life of Man is nothing else but the right use of our whole Nature an active imploying it in its due Functions and Offices a vigorous Exercise of all our Powers and Faculties in a manner suitable to the Dignity and Design to the Frame and Constitution of our Beings To live then in a moral sense is to know and contemplate to love and pursue that which is the true Good of Man this is the Life of the Understanding Will Affections and of the whole Man and whatever acts of ours are not some way or other conversant about Truth and Goodness are not properly Acts of Humane Life but Deviations from it And here I cannot chuse but pause a little to admire and magnifie the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of the Almighty Architect who has contrived an inseparable Connection and necessary Dependance between Life Perfection and Fruition every rational Act every right Use or Exertion of our Natural Powers and Faculties as it is of the Essence of Moral Life so does it contribute to the Improvement and Perfection of our Beings and to the Pleasure and Felicity of our state for Perfection is the Result of such repeated Acts and Pleasure of our entertaining our selves with proper and agreeable Objects Happy man to whom to live improve and enjoy is the same thing who cannot defeat God's Goodness and his own Happiness but by perverting his Nature and depraving his Faculties but by making an ill use or none at all of the Favours and Bounties of God If we examine this Notion of Life more closely and distinctly and resolve this general Account of it into several Particulars we shall easily arrive at a fuller and clearer Comprehension of it First 'T is evident from this Account of Life that it does not consist in Sloth in the meer marriage or cohabitation of Soul and Body in meer Duration or Continuance in this World Solomon indeed out of a natural Abhorrence of Death tells us Truly Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Eccl. 2.7 Something it is if we must call it pleasure 't is but a faint and low one such as all the Irrational Creatures but Bats and Owls and Moles are capable of but according to my Philosophy it can never deserve the Name of Life He that possesses Vital Powers and Faculties is in a Capacity of Life but he only that exerts them Lives To live is not to spend or wast our time but to imploy it 'T is a lamentable History of Life when it can all be summed up in the few Syllables of a Funeral Ring he lived to or rather as it is wont to be expressed he died such a day of the Month such a year of his Age for indeed he lived not at all Life is a meer Dream not only on the account of its shortness but also of its Night and Lethargy when stupid Ignorance confines and dims the Prospect and Sluggishness enfeebles all the powers of the Mind Vigour and Activity Fruition and Enjoyment make up Life without these Life is but an imperfect Embryo a mingled twilight that never will be Day the Images the slothful form of things are faint and obscure like Pictures drawn in watery Colours and weak and imperfect stroaks and vanish as easie as those half Sounds and imperfect Forms which we take in between sleep and waking all their Passions move drowsily and heavily and all their Entertainments have no more relish than abortive Fruit which can never be ripened into Sweetness or Beauty When I have observed any one thus wasting away a whole Life without ever being once well awake in it passing through the World like a heedless Traveller without making any Reflections or Observations without any Design or Purpose beseeming a Man ah thought I is this that Creature for which this great Theater the World was made for which it was so adorned and so enriched Is this the Creature that is the Epitome of the World the top and glory of the visible Creation a little inferiour to Angels and allied to God Is this Machine acted by a moving Flame and by a wise and immortal Spirit Ah! how much is this poor useless stupid thing sunk beneath the Dignity and Design of its Nature How far short is it faln of the Glory to which God had destined it Shall this contemplative thing ever be admitted to Eternal Life who has so wretchedly fooled away this Temporal one Or can Crowns and Kingdoms be reserved for one who has been so ill a Steward of all these Talents God has committed to him No surely I could upon the first thought imagine his sluggish Soul would vanish like those of Brutes or as the Stoicks fancy those of Fools I could easily imagine that it could sleep not as some fancy all Souls do to the Resurrection but to all Eternity But upon better consideration I find this ignorant and incogitant Life is not so innocent as to deserve no worse a Fate For is it a small Crime to live barren and unfruitful endowed with so many Talents to frustrate the design of our Creation to choak and stifle all the Seeds of a Divine Life and Perfection to quench the Grace and Spirit of God In a word is it a small Crime to be false and perfidious to God unjust and injurious to Man No it cannot be and therefore in the parable of our Saviour wherein the last Audit or Day of Accompts is represented the slothful and wicked Servant signifie one and the same thing and must undergo one and the same Sentence Secondly Life cannot consist in Sensuality that is in the meer caressing our Senses or the gratification of our Carnal Appetites The Reasons of this Assertion are evident from the general Notion of Life For first This is not the Exercise of the whole Nature but a part of it and that the inferiour and ignobler too Secondly It is not an Imployment suitable to the Dignity of our Nature First Sensuality imploys only the meaner part of us St. Paul makes mention of the outward and the inward man and seems to make up the whole man of Spirit Soul and Body and some both Divines and Philosophers of no small note both Modern and Ancient have taught that there are two distinct Souls in man a Sensitive and a Rational one if this be so the Sensualist thô he seem fond of Life does foolishly contemn the better half of it and as much a Slave to Pleasure as he is he chuses to drink only the Dregs and lets the pure Streams of sprightly and delicious Life pass by untasted for if there be a Sensitive and Rational Soul there must be a Sensitive and a Rational Life too distinct and different from one another
on to the third thing proposed Sect. 3. The Regulations of a Contemplative Life which regards either First The Time Secondly The Place or Thirdly The Exercise and Imployment of Retirement First As to Time Thô Contemplation more or less ought to enter into every part of our Lives yet the most seasonable time of giving our selves more intirely up to it is the Evening of Life the Declension of our Age we have then had our fill of the World and shall not be like to hanker after it we have seen the emptiness of it and shall be more like to fix upon solid Good we shall value our Peace and Calm the more after we have been long tossed by Storms besides we shall set our selves more seriously to the Meditation of Death and Judgment when we are come within Ken of them and shall be apt to examine the intrinsick good and evil of things with more impartiality when the Heats of Youth and the Boilings of our Passions are cooled and slak'd And finally this is a seasonable time to correct and repair the Errors of the past Life and to state our Accounts for the last Audit But thô I thus prefer Age as most fit for a retired Life I do not disswade the younger from it provided it be Vertue not Softness the love of another World not a cowardly declining the Duties of this which prompts them to it otherwise it were sure much better that the younger sort through the vigorous season of Life should be engaged and taken up by Business nay should contend even with the Cares Troubles and Difficulties of the World rather than make choice of Retirement to be the Scene of a voluptuous lazy and unprofitable Life for in the one case something is every day learnt something done in the other nothing in the one the Man lives neither dishonourable to himself nor unuseful to his Country but in the other herots and consumes away ingloriously and unprofitably Secondly As to Place Solitude has ever been deemed a Friend to Meditation and a Retirement from the World very serviceable to a Conversation with Heaven And this Opinion is much strengthened by the practise of the Nazerites Prophets and devout Persons in the best times 'T is remarked of Isaac that when he would meditate he went out into the Field and when Moses met God it was in the Desart Without question a private Retreat affords us many Conveniences and Advantages to a Contemplative Life leisure and silence settle and compose the Thoughts and the Mind augments its strength and vigour by rest complacency and collection within it self and in this state of Serenity it is most fit to reflect upon it self or enter into a survey of the Rest and Peace of glorified Spirits and examine the Grounds of its own hopes by Retirement we at least in a great measure free and disengage our selves from those things which are apt either to soften or disturb us and to breed in us either Vanity or Vexation And I cannot tell but the fineness of Air the openness of Prospect the Regularity and Moderation of Diet Rest and Exercise may have that influence upon our Bodies as to dispose and prepare them to be the fitter Instruments of the Mind to all this we may add that the variety beauty and use of all the Works of Nature do insensibly and almost unawares raise in us an admiration of the Divine Wisdom and invite us to adore his Power and Goodness But all this notwithstanding it must ever be remembred that Retirement does not so much consist in Solitude of Place as in freedom from Secular Business and Troubles from the Allurements Distractions and Vexations of the World if if we put these off we may find Retirement enough in the most populous City but if we carry these with us into the Country we shall reap little benefit from change of Place or Air and under the Name of Retirement we shall be persecuted with all the Evils and Mischiefs with which Vanity Disorder and Distraction are wont to disquiet an active and busie Life This being rightly understood the Nature of our Circumstances ought to govern us in choosing the Place of our Retreat but especially a regard to such Duties wherein we propose to spend the bigger portion of our Time Thirdly The Exercise and Imployment of a Contemplative Life is now to be considered And here these several things offer themselves immediately to my Thoughts Business Diversion Friendship Meditation as comprizing all the several Acts of a Contemplative Life and measuring out the several Periods of the Ascetick's time First Of Business I have before said That a Life of meer Contemplation is above the nature and state of Man and when I consider how few are capable of any long or regular Contemplations I am apt to think that the wisest way for most is not to discharge and free themselves from all Temporal Engagements but only from such as will disturb the Peace and Order of a retired Life and yet I could wish that their growth and improvement in Knowledge and Goodness might be their main Business and Imployment So many indeed are our Errours and Sins so frail tender and weak our Vertue that to correct the one and confirm the other is Business enough and may of it self easily take up the whole of Life If we pursue diligently all the Methods of the Improvement and Advancement of Life we shall need no other Arts or Imployments to spend or divert our time he that besides a constant attendance upon Publick Devotion Sacraments and Sermons bestows some time each day on bewailing his Sins and blessing God for his Mercies on examining his present state and establishing his future hopes he that spends each day but a few Thoughts on God and Jesus Christ his Redeemer on the vanity and uncertainty of all things in this World but Religion and Vertue or finally on Death and Judgment and withal on the various Arts by which Sin and Folly is wont to cheat or surprize him to tempt or deceive him will I believe find but few hours to waste especially when 't is considered how much Time the Necessities of Nature and the Indispensible Duties we owe to some Relatives or other take up And this calls to my mind the Vigilance and Industry we owe to the Happiness of others as well as to our own There are a great many Offices of Charity to which Humanity and our Christian Profession if we understand the nature of Church-Membership do oblige us the Peace of the Neighbourhood the Preservation of Laws the promoting Publick Piety the Instruction of the Ignorant the Relief of the Needy the Comfort of the Afflicted the Protection of the Injured these and such like Occasions will never be wanting to rouze our Zeal and imploy our Charity and these are Works which will turn to as good if not a better account in the Life to come than Solitary Vertue And certainly they turn to
let others finally depend on Fortune me only on my self SECT III. Of the Right Husbanding or Prolonging Life HAving in the two former Sections first proved Life to be in its own Nature a solid Good a considerable Blessing of Heaven and next endeavoured to prevent the Abuses and Mischiefs to which it is liable by stating the true Notion of Life and by prescribing Rules for the right Conduct of the Active Trading and Contemplative Life the next thing that naturally falls under Consideration is The shortness and uncertainty of this Blessing this is that that pussles the Wit and baffles the Courage of Man the Rock against which all the Attempts of Humane Philosophy have dashed and split themselves for to say truth whatever Complaints Men make against the Troubles yet have they ever made more and sharper against the shortness and uncertainty of Life 'T is true no Cure has ever yet been found of our Mortality yet as wise Men have ever thought it reasonable to make the most of an Enjoyment thô it would not come up to all that they could wish or fancy so were there no other Life it would behove us to do with this to nourish and keep in the flame as long as we can thô we know it must go out at last Now Life like Enjoyment is capable of Accession or Increase two ways that is either in its Continuance or Perfection either by lengthning its Duration or by raising improving or as it were ripening the Joys and Fruits of Life or Life it self I will speak first of prolonging Life and here I will First Demonstrate that Life may be prolonged Secondly I will treat of the ways of prolonging it But before I do either it may be no very wide Digression from my Purpose to take notice of the little Artifices and Impostures by which many endeavour to evade the stroaks of Time and flatter themselves with a sort of imaginary Immortality CHAP. I. The usual Arts of preventing or retarding the Decays of Nature and lessenin the Fears of Death exploded and better substituted in their room Physick instead of which Courage and Contempt of Death Paint c. instead of which the Beauties of the Mind Children instead of which Good Works and so forth Surviving Honour not wholly rejected but a true Immortality preferred SOme take Sanctuary in Physick for which they expect at least the preservation of the health and vigour of Nature if not the lengthning the Date of Life I 'le not dispute whether this Art has deserved so well of Mankind as to justifie the Gentiles in enrolling the first Authors of it amongst the Gods or some Christians in attributing its Original to Guardian-Angels I 'le not examine the possibility of that Elixir by which Artefius is reported by the Adepts to have lived a Thousand years nor what is more to the purpose who have lived longest whether they who have made most or they who have made least use of Physick Or however these Questions be resolved I am sure our time is better spent in labouring to contemn than to prevent Death and that those excellent Principles which fortifie the Mind contribute more to the comfort and pleasure of Humane Life than the most Soveraign Cordials that fortifie the Spirits Some being willing to conceal those Decays which they could not prevent and cannot remedy have devised many ways to counterfeit and supply that Youth and Beauty which Time and various Accidents have washed and worn away But alas to what purpose is it to deck and varnish withered Nature and paint the Spring upon the Face of Winter What purpose is it when the Evil is incurable to suffer ones self to be flattered and imposed upon and try in vain to hide a broaken Fortune not only from the World but from ones self Alas we must feel what we will not see Nature droops and decays as fast within as it doth without and we lose the life and briskness of our Blood as fast as we do the elegancy of Feature or the floridness of Complection In a word as to this perishing Body Physick Washes and Fucosis are in vain you but paint and patch a ruinous Fabrick which can never be made strong and beautiful till Death hath taken it quite down to the Ground and a Resurrection build it up quite a new If therefore you would take my Advice you should lay in a stock of sprightly generous Pleasures which may be ever ready at hand to entertain you when youth and strentgth are past you should take pains to enrich and adorn the Mind whose Beauties will more than supply the loss of those of the Body Wisdom Magnanimity Bounty Modesty Sweetness Humility are Charms able to recommend a deformed or a decreped Body and I am confident may be purchased at a much cheaper rate than false or counterfeit Beauties are by those who are solicitous about them let then the Morning and Noon of your Life be spent in acquiring Vertue Honour Knowledge and good Humor and in your Evening you 'l have no reason to complain of the loss of Youth and Beauty these will be solid Riches and most amiable Charms that will provide you both delight and support at home and command both love and reverence abroad and Time will do you no other injury than it does a Tree when it changes its Blossoms into Fruit or then it does Statues Medals and Pictures whose price and value is enhanced by their Antiquity Convinced that the Decays of Nature cannot be long concealed or propt up some please themselves with an Opinion of Surviving in their Posterity as if Man by Generation did but multiply himself and Life did not like a flame end with its fuel but were conveyed and transmitted from Father to Son Grandchild and so on like a Stream that 's still the same thô it passed through numerous Pipes Well for my part I cannot fool my self with a vain gingle of words I cannot flatter my self that I shall live in him who probably will in a little time forget me however he owe his Being and Fortune to me nay it may be proud and ungrateful will wish that others did forget me too like a Stream running as soon as it enlarges it self as far as it can from its little Fountain and labouring as it were by its circlings and wandrings to conceal the meanness of its rise I cannot flatter my self that I can live in them whose Hopes and Fears Desires and Joys will differ it may be no less from mine whatever they now be than the Dead do from the Living Fools that we are to talk so wildly as if when dead we lived in our Children do we when living share in their distant Joys or do our Pulses beat by their Passions I would not be mistaken as if I designed to oppose or extinguish Nature I know the great Author of it for wise and excellent purposes has implanted in us kind Inclinations towards Posterity but then these
are for the sake of others not my self they ripen into Actions that serve the turn of others not my own I only bear the Fruit which others must gather And whatever pleasure I may now feel in a promising Porspect of the Honour and Vertue of my Posterity 't is such a one as that of Moses beholding Canaan at a distance but such a distance that he must never enter into it To conclude whatever Men promise themselves I think them tolerably fortunate if instead of reaping any benefit when dead from their Children their Lives be not stained and disturbed by them extreamly fortunate if they can make them fit to be their Friends and Favourites worthy to share their Pleasures and able to give them some ease in their Troubles thô after all I cannot but think 't is infinitely more eligible to be the Father of many Good Works than many Children to have a Philosophical Friend or two than a numerous Off-spring and to spend my time nobly in cultivating my Mind than in intangling my Life with Cares for those who often will take none for themselves Some have entertained vain Projects of an imaginary Immortality an Immortality which they must owe neither to God nor Nature but to Historians and Poets Painters and Statuaries and to the dying Eccho's of a surviving Memory I mean that which Men seek in Posthumus Fame in Pictures and Statues and Tombs and embalming Carkases all these seem to carry in them some fading shadows of Being and Existence But ah how imaginary a Life is this something that does infinitely less resemble Life and Being than a Dream does Enjoyment Ah vain support of Humane Frailty Ah vain relief of Death If there be any thing in Honour if it be Body or Substance enough to be seen or felt or tasted if it be Reality enough to be any way enjoyed let me possess it while I live it comes too late if it serves only to increase the Pomps of my Funeral or to dress and set off my Sepulchre or to silence the Groans or to wipe off the Tears of my Orphans or my Friends thô this be something I cannot feel any pleasure in the foresight of that Glory which while I strain to gaze upon at distance the Fogs and Mists of Death thicken the Sky the Voice that will speak me great will speak me too Gone and vanished the Statues and Marbles which adorn my Memory will adorn my Grave too and while they express my Image or my Actions will proclaim that all that is now left of me is Rottenness and Ashes All this I talk abstracting from the Considerations of a future Life for how far the Reputation I leave behind may concern my Soul in its state of Separation from the Body whether the Ecchoes of those Praises and Honours bestowed upon my Memory here will reach and please mine Ears in another World I know not nor do I much desire to know for supposing such a Life my Soul must needs have nobler Employment and nobler Pleasure than this can ever give it I must confess if the Reflections of my Light when I am set and gone would be of any use to direct or inflame Posterity I should now take some pleasure in that which 't is hard to perswade me I shall take any in hereafter nor would it be a trifling Satisfaction to me while I lived if I could believe that my Relations or my Friends could receive any Honour or Patronage from me when dead and since some sort of Character I must leave behind since I must in this manner amongst some at least and for a little time survive I had much rather leave behind me perfume than stench I had rather live in Panegyrick and Commendations than in Satyrs and Invectives But after all how lean and miserable a Comfort is this that when I am dead it will be said I once lived and a promiscuous Croud will talk of me and of my Actions what they please some things good some things bad some things true some things false and what is worse yet I must suffer all the Revolutions of Humors and Parties in following Ages these must give my Abilities and Performances their Character and the prevailing Faction must stamp what Estimate they please upon my Memory But by all this I do not mean utterly to condemn the love of Honour nay 't is really to be cherished when it operates rightly and spurs Men on to generous and handsom Actions I love a Charity that is universal and boundless and extends it self to follwing Ages and certainly there is not a nobler Charity than to furnish the World with an Example that may adorn its own Times and enkindle the Emulation of Posterity Nay further I am willing to believe that a gracious God will sum up amongst the Accompts of my Life the influence it has upon the World when I am dead and to raise the Estimate of my Vertue will consider it not simply in it self but with all the happy Effects which it may any way be the occasion of in successive Ages let me then do good and if I can great Actions upon any motive provided it be just and allowable since this will be the blessed Fruit of it But yet it shall be my Business to make sure of my own Immortality if that of my Name will follow let it It shall be my Business to gain the Approbation of God and Angels and if the Praises of this lower World joyn their Harmony and Consent with that above this cannot disoblige me I will with all my power make sure of my Salvation and not despise Fame Great and good men have ever felt some natural Desires of this sort of Immortality Since then this seems to be an Inclination of God's own planting 't is not to be extirpated but rather carefully cherished and cultivated and duly pruned and regulated Having exploded those mistaken Fancies by which Men support themselves against the shortness of Life I will now proceed to treat of the only two ways by which this Evil may be in some measure remedied that is by prolonging the Date and by improving and perfecting the Nature and Essence of Life so that a Man may live much in a little time CHAP. II. Of Lengthning Life Sect. 1. The Fatality of the Period of Life refuted And Objections from Scripture from Astrological Predictions from Divine Prescience answered A sort of Fate admitted Sect. 2. Of the ways of prolonging Life First Cheerfulness of Mind Secondly Health of Body Thirdly The protection of God and Man Sect. 3. Objections against this last Assertion from such Texts as assert the promiscuous Events of Things and from the early Death sometimes of the Righteous Answered UNder this Article I design to prosecute these three Things First To refute the Opinion of a fatal Period of Humane Life A Fancy which has possessed the Multitude and with which the Minds even of such as would seem above it are not seldom
assaulted Secondly I will consider what ways the Date of Life may be lengthened Thirdly I will remove those Objections with which this Advice is encountered either from the promiscuous Events hapning alike to Good or Bad or from the early and immature Death of some righteous Persons To begin with the first of these First It has been too generally taught and believed That the Date of Humane Life cannot be protracted that every particular Man has a fixed and immutable Period decreed him beyond which he cannot go But this Opinion directly defeats the force of all Motives and Arguments to Vertue derived from Temporal Considerations and undermines our dependence upon God and redicules our Addresses to him as far as they concern this Life and the Things of it And how plain a step is this to the refutation and overthrow of Judaism which was built upon Temporal Promises and consequently to the overthrow of Christianity it self the Authority of the New Testament depending in so great a measure upon that of the Old I 'le leave every one to guess And were there no other Reasons to reject this Opinion besides these alone these I should think were abundantly sufficient since it is impossible that any thing should be consonant to Truth which is so repugnant to the Interest and Authority of Religion but there are so many more that I must be forced to croud them together that I may avoid tediousness and redundancy This Perswasion then is repugnant to all the Instincts of our Nature to what purpose is the Love of Life implanted in us by our great Creator why is Self-preservation the first Dictate and Law of Nature if all our Care and Diligence can contribute nothing towards it Vain and impertinent is that Law whose observation can procure us no Good nor its Violation any Evil. This is a Perswasion that flatly contradicts the Experience and Observation of Mankind in general how can the Period of Life be fixed and unalterable which we see every day either lengthened out by Care and Moderation or shortened by Excess and Negligence unless we can resolve to the utter overthrow of Religion not only that Life and Death but also that Vice and Vertue Wisdom and Folly which lead to the one and the other are alike predetermined necessary and fatal Nor is this Opinion less contrary to the Sense and Reason of the Wise and Prudent than to the Experience of the Multitude Self preservation is the first and chief End of Civil Societies and Humane Law but how foppish and ridiculous a thing were it for the Grave and Sagacious part of Mankind to enter into deep Consultation to frame solemn Laws and devise the strongest Obligations to fence and secure that Life which can neither be invaded one minute before its fatal hour nor prolonged one minute beyond it nor has Man only but God himself endeavoured to secure this Temporal Life by the strictest and most solemn Laws nor this only but he has made Life and Death the Reward of Obedience and Punishment of Sin This Opinion therefore is a manifest Calumny against the Wisdom and Sincerity of God against his Wisdom if he raise up the Pallizado's and Bulwarks of Laws to guard and defend that Life which can neither be violated before nor extended beyond its minute His Sincerity for his Promises would be ludicrous and insignificant and so would his Threats too if neither the Obedience of the Vertuous could lengthen nor the disobedience of the Sinner could shorten Life and in a word to what purpose does the Spirit in 1 Pet. 3.10 11. invite and encourage Men to Religion by the Proposal of Life and Prosperity if in the bottom and truth Life and Prosperity depend not on our Behaviour but our Fate and be not dispensed according to the open Proposals but the secret and unconditional the rigid and inflexible Decrees of the Almighty I would not stop here but heap together a multitude of other Arguments against this Error did I not remark that as it has prevailed too much to be despised so has it too little to be laboriously refuted and that it has so weak a Foundation that few of those that defend it do believe it or at leastwise so heartily as to suffer it to have any Influence upon their Counsels or Actions Turks Astrologers and the most superstitious Assertors of Fate being no more free from the Fears of Death or a Concern for Life than the rest of Mortals The truth of this Proposition being thus made out by unanswerable Reasons we are not to suffer our selves to be moved by any superstitious Imaginations by any obscure or subtle Objections or by any meer Colours or Appearances of Reason for what is once clear and evident ought to remain firm and unshaken thô we cannot unravel every Objection against it therefore thô I should not be able to reconcile this Doctrine with some obscure Texts of Scripture with a certainty of God's Prescience and with some particular Predictions of Men who have pretended to read the fatal Periods of Humane Life in the Schemes of Heaven yet ought its Authority to be preserved as built upon plain Texts and solid Reasons and attested by the Suffrages of the Prudent and Wise and by the daily Observation of the Multitude But the truth is there is nothing objected here but what is capable of a very easie answer the Scriptures which speak an appointed time for Man upon Earth are not to be understood of any particular personal Fate but of a general Law or Rule of Nature not of the extent of every particular persons Life but of the duration of Man in general or of the Mortality of our Frame and Constitution and the shortness of Man's residence here upon Earth and imply no more than that Man as well as all other Species of Animals and indeed of Vegetables for so far Job extends the Comparison hath his time appointed the Bounds of his Life or Abode here set him beyond which he cannot pass Psalm 90.10 The days of our Age are threescore years and ten and thô Men be so strong that they come to fourscore years yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow so soon passeth it away and we are gone As to Astrological Predictions if the Accomplishment of any of them be attested by unquestionable Authority and they be not like the Prophesies of Poets made of mended after the Event yet methinks were not the Minds of Men very prone to Superstition a thousand Errors should be sufficient to discredit and disparage one good Guess and no Man of Sense should have a value for a pretended Science whose Grounds and Principles are evidently uncertain and precarious no Man of any Religion should be fond of that which to say no worse of it seems to stand condemned by God in Scripture for thô I must not dissemble this Truth that the Idolatry which was ever blended with it seems especially to have drawn down
seeking and of these it can give us no assurance whether we respect their Acquisition or Possession and the ways it prescribes to put us in possession of all that satisfaction which results from these things have something in them so mean so laborious so uncertain so vexatious that no Success can compensate that trouble and shame which the canvassing for them puts us to Atheism pretends indeed to extinguish our Guilt and Fears but it does also deface all the beauty and loveliness of Humane Actions it pretends indeed to let loose the Reins to Pleasure but withal it leaves us no support under Evil it takes off indeed many Restraints but withal it unchains and lets loose our Passions In a word it leaves us nothing truly great or lovely to enjoy in this World or hope for in another and if its Tenets were useful to us yet have they no certainty no foundation it derives all its credit from the Confidence not Reason of Men who under colour of a free and impartial Philosophy advance the Interest of those Lusts to which they are intirely enslaved Religion then only remains to be followed this rectifies our Opinions and dispels our Errors and routs those Armies of imaginary Evils which terrifie and torment the World much more than Spirits and Ghosts do this discovers to us Objects worthy of all the love and admiration of our Souls this expiates our Guilt and extinguishes our Fear this shews us the happiness of our present Condition and opens us a glorious prospect of our future one this discovers to us the happy tendancy of Temporal Evils and the glorious reward of them and in one word teaches us both to enjoy and suffer it moderates our desires of things uncertain and out of our power and fixes them upon those things for which we can be responsible it raises the Mind clears the Reason and finally forms us into such an united settled and compacted state of strength that neither the Judgment is easily shaken nor the Affections hurried by any violent transport or emotion But do I not here immitate Physicians who attend only to the most dangerous Symptoms and neglect others Whether I do or no they who read such general Directions are wont to do so in their Application of them and most are apt to look upon Religion as designed only to redress substantial and formidable Evils And yet 't is with the Mind as with the Body thô Fevors Imposthumes Defluxions c. kill the anger of a pustle the pain of a Tooth do strangely disorder and disturb and thus thô Pain and Death and such like Evils overthrow and overwhelm the Mind yet are there a croud of slight and trifling Evils which disquiet and discompose it and this is a Matter not to be contemn'd especially by me in the prosecution of the Design I am here upon since I perswade my self that the great and formidable Evils Guilt Pain Poverty Sickness Death or the Thoughts and Apprehensions of them do but very rarely afflict the Life of Man but there are other Evils of a slighter Nature which like Pirates are perpetually cruising on our Coasts and thô they cannot invade and destroy do much disturb and annoy us Nay what is yet more 't is very usual to see Men acquit themselves very honourably under true and substantial Evils who come off very poorly from the Encounter of slight and despicable ones how common is it for one who maintains bravely his Courage and Judgment amidst Swords and Bullets to lose all Patience Prudence and Government when attacked by a rude Jest a brisk or it may be a bold and sensless Reflection to see a Man that hears very calmly the loss of a Ship or a considerable Sum of Money transported into strange indecency upon the breaking of a Glass or the spoiling of a Dish of Meat and he who sits very tamely and unconcernedly down under a disgraceful Character sweats and raves if robbed but of a Cabbage or an Apricock These and such like Remarks one may make every day and almost in every Company and what is the worst of all our Fears and Sorrows our Hate and Anger are as violent and uneasie when they spring from Causes of the least as of the highest moment We bewail fantastick and true Misfortunes with the same sighs and tears and resent imaginary and substantial Injuries with the same disordered Pulse and deformed Looks When I have reflected on all this I have often thought that it was as necessary to the tranquility of Humane Life to guard my self against Dust and Flies as against Storms and Tempests to arm my self against the stings of a swarm of vexatious Accidents as against Pestilence and War and Poverty and Blindness or Deafness And to this end these three or four following Rules have often been of great use to me First Of the Evils of Life I never take more to my share than are really my own I never travel abroad to find out foreign Mischiefs to torment my self as if there were not enough of the Native growth of my Country my own Mind my own Body my own House are Provinces wide enough for me and a little too fruitful too nay I am not ashamed to confess I decline if I can an Evil even lying in my way as I do a bustle or a fray by passing on the other side of the Street I 'le never split upon a Shelf or Rock if I have Sea-room enough And as a little distance of Place so a little distance of Time serves my turn to make me reckon such Evils as none of mine I 'le no more distract or disturb my self with the Evils that are fancied teeming in the Womb of Time than with those that are now in being in Peru or Mexico this is the very Lecture Religion reads me for sure to incorporate distant Evils or to anticipate future ones were far from studying to be quiet and doing ones own business or from thinking with our Saviour Sufficient for the day is the Evil thereof and were indeed to suffer as busie bodies fearful and unbelievers If any man will impute this to me as brutality and uncharitableness I cannot help it I thank God that I have sense enough to Practise Caution without fear Care without Anxiety and Charity without Distress or Agony of Mind Secondly As to those Evils I speak still of slight and daily ones which do really fall to my share and I cannot avoid my next care is to weaken their Force to disarm them of their Sting their Teeth and Venom if they have any I take from them all the terror that Fancy and Opinion have given them and will no more if I can help it suffer my Imagination than my Taste or Feeling to be abused or imposed upon In the next place I carefully fortifie and strengthen my self see that my state be healthy and my Nature firm lest I should complain of the Meat when the fault is in my Stomach or think