Spectators of the Hebrew Grandeur How could then the Divine Oracles be hid from the Gentilâ—s or the Sacred Tradition of Shiloh to come not be deliver'd to the inquisitive Nations of the Earth Without doubt the East saw the dawning of the Star of Jacob and the South could calculate his Meridian even before he rose Neither were the North and the West without some glimmerings of his Appearance The Wise Men that came to adore him at Bethlehem perform'd but the Wishes of their Fathers and the Eunuch of Queen Candaces made no Scruple to become a Christian when Philip had convinc'd him that He of whom the Prophets had so long foretold was now come in the Flesh Surely he was the desired of Nations the Hope of the Gentiles as well as the Glory of his People Israel Therefore I cannot number it among the Commendations of Christianity that a great Part of those who profess that Name are so presumptuously uncharitable as to damn all that were not of the Seed of Abraham before Christ came in the Flesh as if Salvation were entail'd to one Family and no man cou'd go to Heaven that was not circumcis'd Much rather had I believe That in the very Instant of Death God reveal'd the Mystery of Redemption to many innocent and vertuous Persons among the Gentiles and infus'd a saving Faith in Christ into their Souls at the very moment that their Sences were forsaking their Bodies Supplying their want of Scripture or Tradition with the inspiration of his Holy Spirit when they were taking the last gasp and breathing out their own Or if this be not thought sufficient I will believe That when Christ descended into Hell he preach'd the Gospel to the Spirits which were there in Prison not only those who were disobedient in the days of Noah but all such of the Race of Noah as by compleating the Measure of their Sins had sunk themselves into that fatal Place whether they were Jews or Heathens And I cannot understand those Texts of Scripture which mention his spoyling of Hell and leading Captivity Captive if they may not be applyed to his Triumphant Deliverance of some of those Souls which were shut up in the Infernal Caverns Neither do I perceive any Heresie in believing there might be some Vertuous Heathens in the Retinue he carried with Him from thence to Heaven as well as some of the Sons of Israel However leaving the manner of their Salvation to God I will conclude That it is unreasonable uncharitable and has too much of the Jew in it to pass the Sentence of Damnation on all the Gentiles since the Holy Ghost has assured us That God is no Respecter of Persons but he that in every Nation fears Him and works Righteousness is accepted of Him Besides methinks if matters were brought to the severest Ballance it would not appear Heterodox to say That as all men sin'd in Adam without their own Personal Knowledge or Consent so some might be saved in Christ even without a Particular and Personal Belief in Him of whom perhaps they never so much as heard Some Grains of Allowance may be given to the involuntary Frailties of Humane Nature some Indulgence granted to the invincible Ignorance of a great Part of Adam's Posterity who if they knew not the High-way to Heaven which was reveal'd to their Brethren the Jews and Christians might yet be conducted thither by some By-Path since it is too narrow a Conceit of God's Mercy to think that because he had chiefly manifested it in the Royal Road of the Law and the Gospel therefore he cou'd never go out of the beaten Track This were to retrench the Divine Prerogative and to tye Him up to limited Conditions whose Ways are in the Great Deep and whose Foot-steps no Created Being can Trace The Satisfaction I have of the Soul's Immortality if it amounts not to a Demonstration may yet be numbred among those Proleptick Ideas that need none as being self-evident It is a Parallel with first Principles and has equal Force on my Understanding for I am not more convinc'd That one and two make three than That the Soul of man is Immortal So that I make it not so much an Article of my Faith as a Proposition of my Reason and a Conclusion of Science Yet I do not always go so far round about as by a long Train of Logical Deductions and Inferences to dispute my self into the Remembrance of my Immortality This indeed were necessary to perswade another but I have a nearer Method to comfort my self with the Demonstration of this Noble Truth while it becomes an Object of my very Sence and I can feel that Immortality in my self which my Reason tells me another is possess'd of as well as I. This is easier to be experienc'd than utter'd in words 't is an Art not to be acquir'd without assiduous Reflection and strict Animadversion on our own Thoughts But the Fatigue is more than recompenc'd with the inessable Pleasure that attends it for when by a long and often repeated Practice a man has found the way to keep close Pace with his own Intellect in all its Flights and abstracted Starts from the Body when he can stand on the Brink of the Immaterial World and perceive what is before Him perceiving also that he perceives it then 't is he enjoys Heaven by Antâ—cipation and forestalls his Future Beatitude by tasting Immortality at present He is risen from the Dead before he dies and lives an Eternity of Ages in a Moment Neither is this a sleeping Chimera or a waking â—ream but a real Truth which as I have said is easier practised than expressed It was but a drowsie Conceit in those Fathers who phancy'd the Soul shou'd sleep in the Grave till the Resurrection of the â—ody Had they well traced the Nature of a Spirit from its first Principles they wou'd 〈◊〉 have provided a Dormitory for That Being which wou'd cease to be shou'd it cease to act since its very Essence implies a Contradiction to Rest. I cou'd as easily and with equal Reason believe it will be annihilated at its separation from the Body or at least that it shall be metamorphos'd into something else since if it continue the same it was before the Dissolution of the Body it must continue to think it being indeed nothing else but a pure Thought and how a Thought can take a Nap is beyond the Verge of my Philosophy to apprehend neither do I know of any thing in Divinity that seems to countenance so dull a Theorem As for those Texts of Scripture which seem to adumbrate the Supreme Felicity of the Saints by the Notion of Rest I do not think they mean a Cessation of the Souls natural Energy for how could it then be capable of that Seraphick Love and Joy in the Beatifick Vision which is the chief Entertainment of the Blessed in Heaven It seems rather to intimate the Soul's Escape and Deliverance from the Troubles
and Inquietudes of this Mortal Life which may very well be call'd a Rest and yet be consistent with an Activity far surpassing that which it was endued with in the Flesh The Scripture clothes many abstruse Mysteries in familiar Dresses the better to accommodate Them to the Conceptions of vulgar and ignorant People who make up far the grearest Part of Mankind and we must not expect the rigid Definitions of Aristotle from the Sacred Pen-Men But when we come Scientifically and according to the Method of the Schools to treat of the Natures of Things we ought to fit them with proper and Intelligible Terms and pursue their Essences by a continued Progress not by wild Fits and Starts I have but small acquaintance with the future State but this I 'm sure there will be no change that will be so surprizing to me as that By Death It is a thing of which I know but little and none of the millions of Souls that have past into the invisible World have come again to tell me how it is I. It must be done my Soul but 't is a strange A Dismal and Mysterious change Norris When thou shalt leave this Tenement of Clay And to an unknown somewhere wing away When Time shall be Eternity and thou Shalt be thou know'st not what and live thou know'st not how II. Amazing State no wonder that we dread To think of Death or view the Dead Thou' rt all wrapt up in Clouds as if to thee Our very knowledge had Antipathy Death could not a more sad retinue find Sickness and pain before and darkness all behind III. â—ome courteous Ghost tell this great Secrecy What 't is you are and we must be â—ou warn us of approaching Death and why May we not know from you what 't is to dye But you having shot the Gulph delight to see â—ucceeding Souls plunge in with like uncertainty IV. When Life 's close knot by writ from Destiny Disease shall cut or age unty When after some delays some dying strife The Soul stands shivering on the ridge of Life With what a dreadful Curiosity Does she launch out into the Sea of vast Eternity V. So when the spacious Globe was delug'd o're And lower holds could save no more On th' utmost Bough th' astonish'd Sinners stood And view'd th' Advances of th' encroaching Flood O're-topp'd at length by th' Elements encrease With horror they resign'd to the untry'd Abyss It is very desirable to know in what condition our Souls will be when they leave the Body and what is the Nature of that abodâ— into which we must go but which we never saw into and through what Regions we must then take our flight and after what manner this will be done 'T is certain my Soul will then preserve the faculties that arâ— natural to it viz. to understand to will to remember as 't is represented to us under the Parable of Dives and Lazarus But alas we little know how the People of the disembodied Societies act and will and understand and communicate their thoughts to one another and therefore I long to know it What conception can I have of a separated Soul says a late Writer but that 'T is all Thought I firmly think when a mans body is taken from him by Death he is turn'd into all Thought and Spirit How great will be its Thought when it is without any hinderance from these material Organs that now obstruct its Operations In that Eternity as one expresses it the whole power of the Soul runs together one and the same way In Eternity the Soul is united in its Motions which way one faculty goes all go and the Thoughts are all concentred as in one whole Thought * Beverley's great Soul of Man pag. 292. of Joy or Torment These things have occasioned great variety of Thoughts in me and my Soul when it looks towards the other World and thinks it self near it can no more cease to be inquisitive about it than it can cease to be a Soul I am not at all edified in the Notion of the Blessed Trinity by the sight of a Triangle neither can the whole System of the Mathematicks improve my Knowledge in this Point of Divinity The three distinct Faculties of a Humane Soul are far from illustrating to me the Three Persons in One Essence since there is a Subordination in the Former whereas there is an Equality in the Latter Such Similitudes and Comparisons seem not to me a Stenography or short Characters but a false Spelling in Divinity And tho' to wiser Reasons and more Active Beliefs they may serve as Luminaries in the Abyss of knowledge yet my Heavy Judgment will never be able to mount on such weak and brittle Scales and Roundels to the lofty Pinnacles of true Theology All the force of Rhetorical Wit has not Edge enough to dissect so tough a Subject wherein the little obscure Glimmerings we gain of that Inaccessible Light come not to us in direct Beams but by the faint Reflexions of a Negative Knowledge And we can better apprehend what it is not than what it is In the Disquisition of his Works I own that those do highly magnifie Him whose Judicious Enquiry into his Acts and deliberate Research into his Creatures return the Homage of a Devout and Learned Paraphrase But in the Contemplation of that Eternal Essence to which no created Thought can be adaequate I will humbly sit down and silently admire that which neither the Heart can conceive nor the Tongue or Pen of Men or Angels can declare as they ought and as it is I do not affect Rhodomontadoes in Religion nor to boast of the Strength of my Faith I do not covet Temptations nor court Dangers Yet I can exercise my Belief in the difficultest Point when call'd to it and walk stedfast and upright in Faith without the Crutch of a visible Miracle I can firmly believe in Christ without going in Pilgrimage to his Sepulchre neither need I the Confirmation that was vouchsaf'd to St. Thomas that Proverb of Vnbelief However I do not bless my self nor esteem my Faith the better because I lived not in the Days of Miracles nor ever saw Christ or any of his Disciples Or because I was not one of his Patients on whom he wrought his Wonders Both their Faith and mine were infus'd by the Ministration of the Sences And as they believe 't because they saw so I believe because I hear undenyable Witnesses give Testimony of the same Matter of Fact Nor do I esteem their Faith the more Extraordinary who lived before his Coming since they raised not a Belief of the future Messias but on clear Prophesies and most significant Types being assured by the constant stream of Tradition from Father to Son that what God had predetermin'd and foretold to Adam in Paradise to Abraham to Jacob and the Prophets should infallibly be accomplish'd in the fulness of Time And I cannot see wherein their Faith
Christ and Spiritual Relatioâ— beyond doubt we shall know and be knowâ— nor is it only my old Friends such as Esseâ— Russel Sydney c. that I shall know in Heâ—ven but all the Saints of all Ages who Faces in the Flesh I never saw Luther in 〈◊〉 last sickness being ask'd his Judgment whethâ—â— we shall know one another in Heaven aâ—swer'd thus Quid accidit Adamo nunquam iâ— viderat Evam c. i. e. How was it with Adam he had never seen Eve yet he asketh not who she was or whence she came but saith She is Flesh of my Flesh and Bone of my Bone And how knew he that Why being indued with the true knowledge of God he so pronounced after the same sort shall we be renewed by Christ in another Life And we shall know our Parents Wives Children c. much more perfectly than Adam did then know Eve In Heaven we shall not only see our Elder Brother Christ but all our Kindred and Friends that living here in his fear died in his favour for since our Saviour tells us that the Children of the Resurrection shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to Luke â—0 36 Luke 16. or like the Angels who yet in the Visions of Daniel and St. John appear to be acquainted with each other since in the Parable of the miserable Epicure and the happy Beggar the Father of the Faithful is represented as knowing not only the Person and present condition but the past story of Lazarus Since the Instructer of the Gentiles confidently expects his converted and pious Thessalonians to be his Crown at that great day Since these Arguments besides divers others are afforded us by the Scripture we may safely conclude that we shall know each other in a place where since nothing requisite to happiness can be wanting we may well suppose that we shall not want so great a satisfaction as that of being knowingly happy in our other selves our Friends Thus far we may venture to speak of the lower Degrees of Coelestial Beatitude the mutual Love and Entertainment of the Blessed But who has ever mounted to the Highest Scale of Heavenly Bliss Let him come down and tell us the Mysteries wrapt up iâ— Clouds the Secrets hid within the Veil of Iâ—accessible Light Let him describe the Woâ—ders of the Beatifick Vision and say how deeâ— the Rivers of Pleasure are which run by Godâ— Right Hand for evermore For my Part I must confess I 'm lost in that Abyss of Wonders and therefore modestly withdraw my Pen to Subjects more Domestick and within ouâ— Reach and yet even here I shall but pass from one Abyss to another since every Thing has a Depth in it not to be fathom'd by our weightiest Sense or most solid Reason I have often try'd to dive into the Profundities of Death but still I find my Intellect too light a Plummet and the whole Thread of Life though spun out in finest Speculations wou'd still prove far too short to reach that endless Bottom 'T is true there have been men that have tryed even in Death it self to relish and taste it and who have bent their utmost Faculties of Mind to discover what this passage is but they are none of them come back to tell us the News No one was ever known to wake Who once in Deaths cold Arms a Nap did take Lucret. Lib. 3. Canius Julius being condemn'd by that Beast Caligula as he was going to receive the stroke of the Executioner was askt by a Philosopher Well Canius said he whereabout is your Soul now What is she doing What are you thinking of I was thinking replyed Canius to keep my self ready and the Faculties of my Mind settled and fix'd to try if in this short and quick instant of Death I could perceive the motion of the Soul when she parts from the Body and whether she has any resentment at the Separation that I may after come again to acquaint my Friends with it So that I fancy there is a certain way by which some Men make Trial what Death is but for my own part I cou'd ne're yet find it out I have sometimes thought what would I give for the least glimpse of that invisible World which the first step I take out of this Body will present me with and that there was nothing in the whole discourse of Death that I durst not meeâ— the boldest way and have therefore often attempted to look him full in the Face that I might learn to die generously but still when it came to the pinch Conscience that makes Cowards of us all made one of me and I was forc'd to shrink back with shame Yet surely the Terrour is not so much in Death it self as in the Tragick Pomp that goes before and after it The tedious Discipline of Sickness the formal Visits of Relations and Friends their melancholy Chat the frightful Harangue of the Physician and our own dismal Apprehensions compose that horrid Scene which renders Death uncomfortable When the poor Patient that perhaps may yet outlive his Fears of Death and see Millions drop into the Grave before him yet dies a Thousand Deaths in his Hag-ridden Phancy and makes his Bed his Grave by strength of an abus'd Imagination 'T is only Fancy gives Death those hideous Shapes we think him in for indeed Death is no more than a soft and easie Nothing or rather Natures play-day I firmly think it is no more to die than to be born we felt no pain coming into the World nor shall we in the act of leaving it though in the first one would believe there were more of Trouble than in the latter for we cry coming into the World but quietly and calmly leave it What is Death but a ceasing to be what we were before we were we are kindled and put out to cease to be and not to begin to be is the same thing Methinks it is but th' other day I came into the World and anon I am leaving it for though I am but in my thirtieth year and at present in perfect health and strength yet I look upon my self as a man that has one foot in the Grave already for David says seventy is the Age of man and I have lived near thirty years of that time already The longest of my design 's now is not above a years extent I think of nothing now but ending take my last leave of every place I depart from alas there is no fooling with Life when it is once turn'd beyond thirty Silence was a full answer of him that being ask'd what he thought of Humane Life said nothing turn'd him round and vanisht Oh how Time runs away and we are dead e're we have time to think our selves alive one doth but Breakfast here another Dine he that liveth longest doth but Sup we must all go to Bed in another World therefore good night to you here and good morrow hereafter Indeed our whole Life is but
new Fatigue and am hurried about in a perpetual Circle by an invisible Energy within me I think speak and act with infinite Variety yet know not how I perform these different Operations I know my self to be an Incorporeal Substance and can easily feel out my own Independency on the Body I look on this House of Clay I carry about with me to be only my Prison But how I am confin'd to this Prison I that am but a poor Scintillation or Spark of the Eternal Sun is a Riddle which I cannot solve I can better imagine how a Beam of our Visible Sun may be united to a Marble Statue than that a pure Thought should be fastned to a Clod of Earth from which it cannot free it self but by Death though it can pervade all the Vniverse beside What Cement is it that thus closely tyes together two such incompatible Essences as Heaven and Earth Light and Darkness Spirit and Body This is a Knot must be left for Elias to untye and is indeed one chief Argument of the Shipwrack of Humane Reason since not only all other Things are obscure to us but we are so to our selves the nearest Objects even our own Domestick Operations are as incomprehensible to us as those that are farthest off The Things that touch us nay the very Faculties by which we touch see understand c. are as distant from us as the Ninth Sphere we are as much strangers to our selves as to the Inhabitants of Terra Incognita There wou'd be nothing more welcom to me than a History of my Original for I do not compute my Age or Family by the short Chronology of the Parish-Register nor do I think my self much the older by my Mother 's Additional Record of Nine Months I liv'd in her Womb. I esteem her Reckoning from my Conception but the Tragick Memories of my Death and those which by most are accounted the Chambers of Life and Shops of Generation are no better in my Judgment than the Receptacles of the Dead Seminaries of Corruption the Graves of Souls defunct to the Higher World For I believe I was then Born when the Morning Stars Sang together and when all the Sons of God shouted for Joy I time my Infancy with that of the Universe and esteem no Man older or younger than my self no not the Angels themselves believing that all Spiritual Substances were Created together in the Beginning I will not with some accuse Moses of scantiness in his History of the Creation because according to the Letter he seems to take but little notice of Immaterial Beings The Hebrew Cabbala with the Commentaries of their Learned Rabbins and some of the Primitive Fathers of the Christian Church do sufficiently evince That there are greater Mysteries contained in the Three first Chapters of Genesis than the bare Letter or Vulgar Translations seem to exhibit There is a Sacrament in that Holy Language which whosoever partakes of can be no stranger to the Natural and Divine Truths couch'd under it To such an One the History of the Terrestrial Adam's Happy State in Paradise and his Banishment from thence will be an Hieroglyphick of the Original Beatitude of the Immaterial World and the Degeneracy of humane Souls their Descent from the Aetherial Mansions and Consinement to Houses of Clay as well as of the Fall of Angels I seem to my self not without Reason to embrace the Doctrine of the Praeexistence of Souls since it was among the Credenda of many Antient Sages a peculiar Tradition of the Jews and the general Opinion of all the East That Question which was put to our Saviour concerning the Man that was born Blind whether it was for his own sins or those of his Parents seems clearly to imply That he was in a Condition or Capacity of sinning before his Birth which how it could be without supposing the Praeexistence of his Soul is past my Divinity or Philosophy to unriddle The various Conjectures also which the Jews made of Christ according to the Report of his Disciples when some said he was Elias others that he was one of the Prophets a third sort that he was John the Baptist risen from the Dead are evident Arguments That the Doctrine of Praeexistence and a Metempsychosis was establish'd as part of the Creed of that Nation Of which also that passage in the Wisdom of Solomon is no obscure hint where the Author says Or rather being a good Spirit I came into a Body pure and undefiled Neither am I startled because I find not Christ or any of his Apostles asserting or so much as mentioning any such Doctrine St. John's Hyperbole in the last verse of his Gospel satisfies me that I must not expect to find all that our Saviour did and said register'd by the Evangelists And St. Paul's frequent Exhortation to hold fast the Traditions that he had imparted to them whether by Word or Epistle convince me That it is not unreasonable to conclude That he deliver'd many Doctrines in his Sermons which he had no occasion to mention in his Letters to the Churches Among which this might be one However it is a sufficient Warrant to my Belief That I no where in all the Scriptures can find this Doctrine reprehended Which had it been an Errour cou'd not have escaped the censure of Christ and his Apostles it being the Universal Tenet of all sorts of Jews except the Sadduces When I consider also that Origen and Ammonius taught it in the Schools of Alexandria Plotinus himself learning it from the latter and that all the Primitive Fathers who were Platonists asserted it not only as a Philosophical but also as a Divine Truth I look upon it as an Effect of Gothick Barbarity and Ignorance which afterwards overspread all Christendom That neither this nor hardly any other Point of Platonism were countenanced in the Christian Schools but only the Dictates of Aristotle and his Ghost Averroes In fine that elegant Flourish of St. Augustine Infundendo creatur creando infunditur is no Rule of my Faith in this Point since it fastens so many irreverend Consequences on God Almighty neither can I believe the Soul to be ex Traduce because it carries in its Front so many Inconsistencies in Philosophy besides the Indignity that is done to the Soul thereby which amounts to a true Scandalum Magnatum since 't is levell'd at the whole Order of immaterial Beings I must therefore believe That I had a Being long before I came into this Body and yet not resolve the Manner of my Existence into a meer Potentiality or an unactive slumber in the Bosom of my Causes as if I were then but a Seminal Idea in the Blood of my Fathers or a Metaphysical Dream of my present self I believe I was in a State of greater Activity before I was conceiv'd by my Mother than since she bore me and for ought I know have â—â—rang'd all the Boundless Tracts of the Vniverse been Naturaliz'd in the
several Regions of the Sky and Air till being tyred with so vast a Ramble and willing to try all States of Life I was by the Force of a strong Inclination and the irresistible Charm of rightly adapted Matter allured into this Terrestrial Body here to do Penance for the Faults of my Superiour Life and in this Horizon between the upper and the lower World to make my Choice of Good or Evil Light or Darkness Life or Death This unlocks all the Aenigma's of Providence and reconciles the harsher Difficulties with which the Immediate Creation or Traduction of Souls is involved It is the noblest Instrument of Vertue the sharpest Spur to a Divine Life whilst it doubles the Hope we have of being Immortal à Parte post by assuring us we were so à Parte ante And that it is not from any Arbitrary Decree of God inconsistent with the Rest of his Divine Perfections that we shall live for ever but from our own Nature and Essence being Created to subsist an interminable Duration of Ages I believe those Books of the Holy Scripture which are lost could they possibly be recovered again would serve as a Lamp to enlighten us in many Obscurities of Religion History and Nature And if the Writings of Jasher Iddâ— the Prophet c. could inform us nothing of the Praeexistence of Souls 't is very probablâ— the more early Oracles of Enoch would sincâ— he was but the Seventh Soul that was drench'â— in Terrestrial Matter and led so pure and incorrupt a Life as wou'd tempt one to believe That he was awaken'd to the Memory of his former State which for ought we know might have no small influence on his succeeding Change I have often wonder'd where St. Jude had so particular an Account of Michael the Arch-Angels dispute with the Devil about the Body of Moses that he was able to relate the very words that pass'd between them Surely the Jews had some Books or at least Traditions which were believed to be Orthodox tho' they were not so much as mention'd in the Sacred Canon for we cannot without great Impiety imagine that the Holy Saint wou'd impose upon our Belief any thing that was Forreign or Apocryphal I am apt to conclude from hence That there were many Traditional Doctrines entertained among the Hebrews which are by us esteemed no better than Fables However tho' I am thus convinced of the Truth of our Praeexistence and that this present Life is but a Shadow or Dream in comparison of what we enjoy'd before our Immersion in the Flesh yet I wou'd not have this Dream interrupted by any untimely or harsher stroke of Destiny I shou'd think it no inconvenience to live long but rather a Blessing That so a multitude of years might scum off the Froth and Sullage of our Appetites and Passions that so being gradually wean'd from those low Affections which brought us down to the Earth we may without any Disquiet or Turbulency remount to our Aetherial Homes For I am apt to think that those â—ouls who go out of their Bodies with any remaining Relish upon them of the Body like Fruit that is either pluck'd off or shaken down by violent Winds still retain in their separation a raw and eager smack of the Flesh with a languishing Byass toward it Whereas he that has tarried his full Period in the Body parts from it with Ease and Willingness as Ripe Fruit drops from the Tree And therefore I do not wonder that the most general Scene of Apparitions Ghosts c. is the Church-yard or at least that Place where the Body of the Spectrum was buried And the removed Earth which covered the Cobler of Silesia 's Body is a shrewd intimation That there are some Departed Souls which if they seek not a Reunion with their Bodies yet endeavour to hold a kind of Correspondence with them even in the Grave And tho' the Impossibility of being married again to these their dear Consorts after that final Divorce were enough one wou'd think to cure their Impotent Desires yet they burn with a new Lust and commit a Spiritual Adultery in the unlawful Bed of the Grave These I look on as the Effects of a too early and violent Separation and therefore esteem Methuselah and the Resâ— of the Fathers before the Flood happy who prolong'd their years to the utmost standarâ— of Humane Life and seem'd not so much tâ— die for that imports Violence as voluntarily to forsake their old Rotten Habitation shake Hands with their Bodies and so retuâ—â— to the Aetherial Palaces from whence they haâ— so long stragled Yet notwithstanding the great Esteem â— have of long Life as a Means rather to Improve than Impair us I cannot promise my self to out-live a Jubilee tho' I have already seen one Revolution of Saturn Neither do I affect to make Popes Emperours Kings and Grand Seigniours the Land-marks in the Chronology of my self That were to insult over the Royal Ashes of Princes besides the Ambition in Ranking my self in their Number Methinks I grow old even at those Years when the World counts me Young and possess the Heritage of David's last Ten Years of Fourscore in the Prime of my Age. Indeed the whole Earth and all this Planetary World seems to droop and decay Every Species of Beings grow weak and languid and seem to draw near their Dissolution Yet 't is needless to engage God in the Act since tho' Creation was above the Force of Nature yet Mutation is not and no Annihilation can proceed from that Paternal Essence of Essences It seems easie to me to believe That the World will perish upon the Ruins of its own Principles And tho' the precise Period of its Destruction be not known to the Angels themâ—elves yet there are not wanting some Philosophical Rules whereby one might venture to Calculate its Duration and by observing the various Attempts Eruptions and Devastations made by Fire already one may conjecture â—bout what Time that most active Element â—hall be let loose to destroy this Face of the World and transform this Superannuated Heaâ—en and Earth into New Ones as the Holy Prophet has foretold For as to Annihilation look on it as a Chimera or Non Entity which cannot be said to slow from Him who â—s All-being and the Fountain of Existence â—t were easier to conceive that Cold should â—e the immediate Effect of Fire and Darkâ—ess the Natural Result of the actual Preâ—ence of Light than to think that Annihiâ—â—tion or not Being can proceed from Him â—ho is the Original Source of Being from â—hose Divine Power Wisdom and Goodâ—ess all Things flow by a Necessary Emanaâ—â—on and continue in their several Perfectiâ—ns by as unalterable a Law as that which â—ave them so that there can be no Vanity supposed in their Eternal Subsistence â—o Leaps or Starts from Something to Noâ—â—ing It is far more agreeable to the Prinâ—â—ples of Philosophy to conceive That only â—â—e Gross and Corruptible Part
one often repeated Stop to Death and we are as near it at the first Minute of our setting out as at a hundred years end For Death either keeps an even Collateral Pace with us from our very Birth or at least he marches but one Step behind us all the way of our Life so that when the appointed Time is come for him to execute his Commission he soon can reach forth his Hand arrest us and stop our further Journey Man in the Vigour and Prime of his years Phancies himself in the midst of a vast Plain he looks behind him and numbers all the weary Steps of Life he has already taken perswades himself that Death must also measure the same space of years in his Pursuit before he can o'retake Him then turning his Eyes before he sees a boundless Tract an indeterminate set of years being thus deluded by the Inchanted Prospect he rushes on and bids defiance to pale languid death imagining he sees him lagging afar off at the first entrance of all the wide-stretch'd Waste whereas the nimble Skeleton is as far advanc'd as he only keeps out of sight and will never be seen till the very moment he gives the fatal stroke To whatsoever Light Mans turn his Face death like his Shadow whips behind Him still and is at his Back but ne're will Face him till the latest Gasp And he that can stoutly bear his Looks for that one Moment shall never see him more to all Eternity 'T is but the Fear of this one Moments Pain that makes our Lives so uneasie all along And I am really asham'd of this incorrigible Folly of Mortals who spend so many years in painful Disquisitions how to protract the Pain of one poor moment and undergo ten times more Labour to escape it than they can possibly feel in undergoing it I admire the Resolution of the Indian Wives who in contempt of Death scorn to survive their Husband's Funeral Pile but with chaste Zeal and an undaunted Courage throw themselves into the Flames as if they were then going to the Nuptial Bed Certainly they calculate aright who reckon the Day of our Death the Day of our Nativity since we are then Born to the Possession of Immortal Life For this Reason I honour the Memory of Ludovicus Cartesius the Paduan Lawyer who in his Last Will and Testament ordered that no sad Funeral Rites should be observ'd for Him but that His Corps should be attended with Musick and Joy to the Grave and as if it were the Day of his Espousals he commanded that Twelve Suits of Gay Apparel should be provided instead of Mourning for an equal number of Virgins who should usher his Body to the Church It will not I hope be an unpardonable Transition if I start back from the melancholy Horrours of Death to the innocent Comforts of Humane Life and from the Immortal Nuptials of this Italian pass to the Mortal Emblem the Rites of Matrimony the Happiness of Female Society and our Obligations to Women 'T is an uncourtly Vertue which admits of no Proselytes but Men devoted to Coelibacy and he is a Reproach to his Parents who shuns the Entertainments of Hymen the blissful Amours of the Fair Sex without which he himself had not gain'd so much as the Post of a Cypher in the Numeration of Mankind though he now makes a Figure too much in Natures Arithmetick since he wou'd put a stop to the Rule of Multiplication He is worse than Numa Pompilius who appointed but a set number of Virgins and those were free to Marry after they had guarded the Sacred Fires the Term of four years VVhereas if his morose Example were follow'd all VVomen should turn Vestals against their wills and be consecrated to a peevish Virginity during their Lives I wonder at the unnatural Phancy of such as could wish we might procreate like Trees as if they were asham'd of the Act without which they had never been capable of such an extravagant Thought or like Alphonsus King of Spain would correct the Institutions of Heaven and say Had they been present with God when he commanded Adam and Eve to encrease and multiply they would have propos'd a betteâ— method for Generation Certainly he that Created us and has riveted the Love of Women in the very Center of our Natures never gave us those passionate Desires to be our incurable Torment but only as Spurs to our Wit and Vertue that by the Dexterity of the One and the Integrity of the Other we might Merit and Gain the Darling Object which should consummate our Earthly Happiness I do not patronize the Smoke of those Dunghill-Passions who only court the Possessions of an Heiress and fall in Love with her Money This is to make a Market of Women and prostitute the Noblest Affection of our Souls to the sordid Ends of Avarice Neither do I commend the softer Aims of those who are wedded only to the Charming Lineaments of a Beautiful Face a clear Skâ—n or a well shap'd Body 'T is only the Vertue Discretion and good Humour of a Woman could ever captivate me and I am bless'd in a Mate who has her share both of these and the other exteriour Ornaments I hate the Cynical Flout of those who can afford Women no better Title than Necessary Evils and the lewd Poetical Licence of Him who made this Anagram Vxor Orcus idem That Oratour whisper'd the Doctrine of Devils who said Were it not for the Company of Women Angels would come down and dwell among us I rather think were it not for such ill natur'd Fellows as he Women themselves would prove Angels 'T is an ungrateful Return thus to abuse that Gentle Sex who are the Moulds in which all the Race of Adam are cast As if they deserv'd no better Treatment at our Hands than we usually give to Saffron Bags and Verde Bottles which are thrown into a Corner when the Wine and Spice are taken out of them The Pagan Poet was little better than a Murderer who allow'd but two good Hours to a VVoman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnam in Thalamo alteram in Tumulo For my Part I should esteem the VVorld but a Desert were it not for the Society of the Fair Sex and the most Polished Part of Mankind wou'd appear but like Hermits in Masquerade or a kind of Civilized Satyrs so imperfect and unaccomplish'd is our Virility without the Reunion of our lost Rib that Substantial and Integral Part of our Selves Those who are thus disjoynted from VVomen seem to inherit Adam's Dreams out of which nothing can awake them but the Embraces of their own living Image the Fair Traduct of the first Metamorphosis in the VVorld the Bone converted into Flesh They are always in Slumbers and Trances ever separated from themselves in a wild Pursuit of an intolerabâ—â— Loss nor can any thing fix their Volatile Desires but the powerful Magnetism of some Charming Daughter of Eve These are the Centers of all