surest course to take away the uneasie Symptom by removing that which Foments the cause Thus when the Mind is distemper'd with turbulent Commotions and the disquieted Appetite does too restlessly and eagerly crave Objects which though perhaps in themselves not absolutely Bad are at least made by a Conjunction of Circumstances unfit and dangerous for the Person that longs for them VVe like unskilfull or unruly Patients fondly imagine that the only way to appease our Desires is to grant them the Objects they so Passionately tend to But the wise and soveraign Physitian of Souls who considers not so much what we do wish as what we should wish often discerns that this praeternatural Thirst indicates and calls for a Lancet rather than a Julep and knows it best to attempt the Cure rather by taking away somewhat that we have than by giving us that which only a Spiritual superfluity reduces us to want And in effect we often see that as a few Ounces of Blood taken away in a Feaver does cool the Patient more than the giving him ten times as much Drink would do so a few Afflictions by partly letting out and partly moderating our corrupt Affections do more compose and appease a Mind molested with inordinate Appetites than the Possession of a great many of the Objects we impotently desire VVhilst our Appetites are roving and unreasonable and insatiate the obtaining of this or that particular Object does but amuse the Patient not take away the Disease whereas seasonable and sanctify'd Crosses that teach us to know our selves and make us sensible how little we deserve and how little the things we are so Greedy of could make us happy if obtain'd may reduce us to a Resignation and Tranquility of Mind preferrable to those over-valu'd things which as it keeps us from enjoying so it keeps us from needing Thus Zacheus who whilst a Publican never thought he had enough when he had once entertain'd our Saviour though he offer'd to make a quadruple Restitution of what ever he had fraudulently acquir'd was upon a sudden by being freed from Avarice grown so Rich that he was forward to give no less than half he had to the Poor as if his Divine Guest had wrought upon his Goods such Miracles as he had done upon the five Loaves and two Fishes of which the Remains amounted to more than the whole Provision was at first MEDITATION V. Upon the Taking of Physick THe last bitter Potion that I took Sophronia was I remember sweetned with the hopes were given me with it that it might prove the last I should need to take and would procure me a setled and durable Health But I find by sad Experience That the benefit I deriv'd from it is nothing near so lasting as it was welcome for I am now reduc'd to take Physick agen and I fear must often do so before I shall be able to dislodge this troublesome Ague that haunts me For though the last Physick I took wrought so well that I hop'd it had brought away not only the ill Humours themselves but the very sources of them yet by the effect of what I took this Morning I not only find there is as much to be purged away now as there was then but what is sadder I can scarce hope this Physick will excuse me from the need of taking more again ere long But though 't is a troublesome thing and must be often repeated yet 't is a salutary thing too and cannot be more unpleasant than 't is usefull and as Loathsome as it is a Sickness were far worse Thus when a relenting Sinner has endeavour'd to wash away his Sins with his Tears he may possibly think himself so throughly wash'd in that abstersive Brine which yet owes its cleansing Virtue not to its own Nature but to the Blood of Christ that if he be a new Convert and be entertain'd with those Ravishing delights wherewith God is often pleas'd to engage such returning Prodigals as the Kind Father welcom'd his Riotous Son with Feasting and with Musick that he is apt to fancy Repentance to be like Baptism which being receiv'd once for a Man 's whole Life needs never be renewed But though during such transports an unexperienc'd Convert may be apt to cast the Gauntlet to the VVorld saying in his Spiritual prosperity that he shall never be mov'd yet as our Saviour speaks The Spirit indeed is willing but the Flesh is weak and too commonly our Resolutions flagg with our Joys and those that a while before imagin'd they despis'd the World find themselves Worsted if not Captivated by it and find it far more difficult than they thought it to Live in the Company of Sinners without being of their Number and in so defil'd a World without being spotted by it And as the same David who said in his Prosperity he should never be mov'd said in his Distress he should one Day perish by the hand of Saul So many of those that whilst their Tears of Repentance and of Joy are not yet dry'd off their Eyes are apt to defie and contemn all the Ghostly enemies and difficulties that oppose their present zealous Resolutions will perhaps in a while after when they meet with unexpected Impediments and Foyls change their confidence into despair and think those very Enemies whom they lately look'd on as Despicable to be Insuperable But as Physick that does good for a time ought not to be rejected because it does good but for a time nor should we reject the only sure means of our present Recovery for fear of future Relapses so though we sadly find that Repentance must be repeated and that after we have practis'd it often we must have need of it agen yet since 't is the only proper means to recover a Soul out of a state of Sin which is worse than any Disease and leads to the worst of Deaths we must never suffer our selves to be so far Discouraged as to forgo so necessary and so profitable a Duty and must not more frequently Relapse into faults than renew our Sorrow for them and our Resolves against them For Innocence indeed is far more desirable than Repentance as Health is than Physick But as Physick is more Eligible than the continuance of Sickness so is Repentance more Eligible than continuing in the state of Sin And as the Drinking ev'n of a bitter Potion is a less Evil than the heat and thirst and restlesness of an Ague so to lament for Sin here is a far less uneasie thing than to do it in a place where there is nothing but remediless VVailing and Gnashing of Teeth 'T is true that our Souls are in this too like our Bodies that our whole Lives are spent betwixt Purging away of naughty Humours and accumulating them And me-thinks I hear the Flesh still saying unto the Spirit as Ruth did to Naomi The Lord do so to me and more also if ought but Death part thee and me Ruth 1. 14. But
be as great though not the same nor so specious as the other their Faults and Infelicities are indeed less taken notice of because their Persons and Conditions are obscure and their Poverty conceals their Vices as well as their Virtues from our Eyes as in a sharp Winter the Snow does as well hide their Dunghills as cover their Gardens But if your Quality allow'd you to acquaint your self with the true state of this inferiour sort of People you would soon perceive that ev'n of rural Families there is scarce any that as far as their Wits will reach has not its several Parties and little Intrigues Nor is there any Cottage so low and narrow as not to harbour Care and Malice and Covetousness and Envy if those that dwell in it have a mind to entertain them And what Envy alone may do to produce Crimes and Discontents we may conjecture by what happen'd betwixt Cain and Abel since their being heirs to the whole World could not keep two Brothers at peace whilst one of them was envious And there are some sordid Vices which are more incident to the meaner and more necessitous sort of Men as Spiders and Cobwebs are wont to abound more in thatch'd Cabbins than in great Mens houses I should perhaps says Eusebius think these people happy if I found they thought themselves so but the Pomp and Vanities of the World have oftentimes stronger allurements for them than for the Grandees and Courtiers themselves For those that are possess'd of these imaginary Joys are disabus'd by their own Experience and those that live among these Theatrical persons are near enough to discern that they are but causelesly envy'd As for my part when I had occasion to be conversant in great Mens Families and the honour to preach in Princes Courts the sight of their course of Life did as thorowly convince me of the Vanity of the World as my Sermons endeavour'd to convince them Whereas Country people see but the glittering and deluding outside of Greatness and beholding it but at a distance see it in the favourablest light which Men can behold it in and consequently are strongly tempted to envy what they admire and repine at their own condition for the want of it Nay every gawdy trifle that those that live in Towns and Cities chance to make shew of is wont to make a Country man envy as well as gape And 't is odds but that very Milk-maid whose condition you are pleas'd to think so happy envies some Neighbouring Farmers Daughter for a piece of taudry Ribbon or a black Hood Nor are they so much more priviledg'd from the assaults of Temptation than Men of higher rank For 't is not so much a Mans outward condition as his inward disposition and temper of mind that makes Temptations either to sin or to discontent prevalent or unsuccessfull When Joseph was sold into Egypt and sollicited by a Woman that would needs be his Mistress upon more scores than one though his condition expos'd him more to hopes and fears than almost any other condition could expose another Man And though his Youth made him very capable of rellishing the pleasures that his Beauty made him courted to receive by giving them yet this chast Youth chose rather to be Imprison'd any where than in a fair Ladies Arms and preferr'd the being made a Captive before the Captivating of his amorous Mistress But whilst young Joseph was thus chast in the Aegyptian Potiphar's House his eldest Brother Reuben was Incestuous in good Jacob's whose Family was then the visible Church of God and Lot who was chast and temperate in Sodom it self was Drunk and committed Incest in a Cave so much more does the success of Temptations depend upon the temper of a Man's mind than upon the place he lives in I know not says Eugenius whether the Innocence of Rural people be more easie than that of great Men but sure it is not so commendable For as a Woman that has never yielded because she was never sollicited may be call'd rather Innocent than Virtuous so their condition that owe their not being Inveigl'd by the Vanities of the World to their Ignorance of them has more in it of good fortune than of merit I thank you for that consideration subjoyns Eusebius for I confess I think there is a great Disparity betwixt an unacquaintedness with the bewitching pleasures of the World and a contempt of them And he is the truly heroick Spirit that can as David could plentifully enjoy all those sensual Delights and Vanities he chose to reject For he could feast a Nation and prefer Temperance before all that Abundance He could gain strange Victories at once over his outward Enemies and over the Temptations he was expos'd to by such successes He could Build stately Palaces and then profess himself to be but a Stranger and a Sojourner upon Earth He could afford Humility room to sit with him on his Throne and could listen to her Memento's amidst all the Acclamations of his People and the Panegyricks of his Courtiers He was not to be resisted by Beauties that to others were irresistible when he postpon'd the fairest Objects that could here charm his Eyes to such as were visible only to those of Faith He had got together the greatest Treasure that for ought I remember we read of in any History and yet seems never to have been much pleas'd with it but when he dedicated it to the Building of the Temple and made the fruits of his Valour the oblations of his Piety To be short he was the greatest Person upon Earth when he was content to leave it and was willing to descend from the Throne into the Grave whilst he look'd upon that as the place whence he must ascend to the Mansion of his God so much did he ev'n whilst he wore an earthly Crown aspire to an Heavely one And though continues Eusebius we must now a days as little expect to meet with a Man of David's condition as of his temper yet proportionably we may put a vast Difference betwixt those that but escape the sight of the World's allurements and those that reject the Profers of them Eusebius was in this part of his Discourse when we were come near enough to the River to discover it within a little way of us And therefore finding by his silence that he thought it seasonable to desist I only ventur'd to tell him with a low Voice as we continu'd our Walk that I suspected that in some of the things he had been saying he had a design rather to check Lindamor a little and keep up the Discourse than to deny that a retir'd and rural Life has great advantages towards Contentation To which that he might conclude what he had to say before we reach'd the River he made haste to reply in the same Tone That I was not altogether mistaken For says he I think the case may be pretty well represented by saying that as there are
Goods is me-thinks but ill advis'd as well as unthankfull if he repine at his Portion because it is inferiour to those of the famously Rich For though an unwieldy Affluence may afford some empty Pleasure to the Imagination for to the Body it scarce affords any at all yet that small Pleasure is far from being able to countervail the Imbittering cares that attend an over-grown Fortune For whatever the unexperienc'd may imagine the frequent and sad Complaints of the Rich themselves sufficiently manifest that 't is but an uneasie Condition that makes our Cares necessary for things that are meerly superfluous and that Men whose Possessions are so much spread and display'd are but thereby expos'd the fairer and wider Marks that may be hit in many places by misfortune Nor will Carelesness secure them since a provident concern of a Man's Estate though it be great being by the Generality of Men look'd upon as a Duty and a part of Prudence he cannot suffer himself to be wrong'd or cheated of that without losing with his Right his Reputation For my part says Lindamor I do the more wonder to see Men so greedy of Lading themselves as the Scripture speaks with thick Clay that they Hoard up their Treasures from those uses which alone make Riches worthy the Name of Goods and Live by a temper quite contrary to that of Saint Paul As having all things and possessing nothing When I consider the things they pretend to by this as mean as unchristian Appetite The two chief of these are wont to be The keeping of a great House and the leaving their Children great Matches As to the former though others are too much advantag'd by it not to extol it and though it be sometimes indeed in some cases a decent and almost necessary piece of Greatness yet 't is in my opinion one of the most unhappy Attendants that retain to it for the Laws of Hospitality and much more those of Custom turns him that keeps a great Table into an Honourable Host subjects him to comply with the various and oftentimes unreasonable Humours of a succession of Guests that he cares not for at all and that care as little for him it brings him in a world of Acquaintance to whom he must own himself oblig'd because they come to Eat his Meat and must really requite them by giving them the pretiousest thing he has to part with his Time And a full Table together with the Liberties that Custom allows at it if not exacts there tempt him both to Indulgence to his Appetite prejudicial to his Health and if they do not prevail with him to speak do often at least to dispose him to hear and to connive at such free Discourses as are prejudicial to his Interests so that there is more than one account upon which a great Entertainer may be involv'd in David's Curse against his mortal Enemy of having his Table become a Snare And for the design continues Lindamor of laying up vast Estates for a Man's Children if they be Sons he thereby but encreases their Temptation to wish the Father Dead and provides Incentives to their Vice and Fuel for their Excesses when he is so And if they be Daughters not to repeat the newly mention'd Inconveniences how many unhappy young Women have we seen who upon the score of the vast Portions left them by their Parents have been betray'd and sold by their Guardians or by those Relations that should have been as they were call'd their Friends and how often have we also seen that an unwieldy Fortune has been so far from Purchasing the Heir to it a good Husband that it has procur'd her a Bad one by making her think her self oblig'd and qualify'd to Match with some high Title and procuring her to be Haunted by some whose Vices perhaps alone have reduc'd him to Sell himself to redeem his Fortune and to make an Address which aims but at the Portion not the Person and accordingly when he has got the one he slights the other and despises her for the want of that high Extraction she priz'd in him and perchance hates her too for confining him from some former and more than pretended Passion I perceive then Lindamor says Eusebius that you are as well as I dispos'd to think him not a meer Fool that pray'd God to give him neither Poverty nor Riches but to supply him with things suitable to his Condition Prov. 30. 8. That seeming to be the meaning of the Hebrew Phrase A pinching Poverty and a luxuriant Fortune though different Extremes being liable to almost equal Inconveniences and a Competency affording us enough to engage us to Thankfulness without Administring such Temptations to Sensuality and Pride DISCOURSE XX. On seeing Boys swim with Bladders THe Sun was yet so near the Meridian that if the Attention Eusebius's Discouses excited had not diverted us from minding the heat of the VVeather we should have found it troublesome and in effect soon after we had left listning to the conferences I have been repeating we begun to feel a heat uneasie enough to oblige us to retire from it But taking several ways as Chance or Inclination directed us to shun the same inconvenience it was my Fortune to hold the same course with Lindamor and both of us by following no Guide but the design of shunning all beaten Paths and unshelter'd Grounds that being the likeliest way to reach our double end of Coolness and Privacy after we had a while walk'd somewhat near the River-side we were at length brought to a Shady place which we should have found as well as we wish'd it a Solitude if others had not concurr'd with us in the same hopes for the Expectation of Privacy had brought thither divers whom the Suns scorching heat invited to that cool and retir'd part of the River where they hop'd to shun all other Eyes as well as that of Heaven among those Swimmers we observ'd some Novices who to secure their first Attempts had Bladders ty'd under their Arms to keep them from sinking any lower This sight says Lindamor after he had a while mus'd upon it hath Circumstances in it that me-thinks are applicable enough to the Education of many of the young Ladies of these times of whose faults the Excellent Celia and all the others that you and I can think worth our Concern are free enough to let me entertain you without Rudeness of them the Commonness of these Blemishes ennobling those few that are exempted from them You cannot then continues Lindamor but have observ'd with me that many of those young Ladies whose Parents out of a mistaken Zeal condemn that which at the Court was wont to be call'd good Breeding and Principles of Honour as things below a Christian and insufficient to bring their Possessours to Heaven are so unluckily Bred and so ill Humour'd as well as Fashion'd that an almost equally unhappy Education is requisite to make their Company tolerable Civility which is almost