A DISCOURSE On the Memory of that Rare and truely Virtuous Person Sir Robert Fletcher OF SALTOUN Who died the 13. of Ianuary last In the thirty ninth year of his Age. Written by a Gentleman of his Acquaintance 2 Sam. 3. 38. Know ye not there is a Prince and a Great Man fallen this day in Israel EDINBVRGH Printed by a Society of Stationers Anno Dom. 1665. TO THE READER SVch is the Force and Tyranny of Custome that Somewhat must be prefixed to the following Discourse The Occasion was told in the preceeding Page At which time Love and Regrate were bringing to the Authors Remembrance many Instances of that Excellent One his Worth and Virtue He feared least in that Croud many precious Reliques of his dear Friend might be lost He thought therefore that to digest them into a Regular Composure would be the surest course to preserve them In which attempt He had also an eye at the satisfaction of some Others but did intend nothing lesse than the Presse Else may be He would have been more Backward in it It was in hast He wrote it and you have it here with the same defects which at first dropt with it from the Authors Pen for neither his Leisure nor his Humour could well allow him a serious Review of it Only some Amendments were made by the Pen of another Yea He could heartily wish it had been guilty of greater Errours and Faults That so both It and He might have been excused from this Pennance which the Importunities of Others to whom neither the Design nor Discourse was unpleasing hath enjoyned If the Vndertaking be thought Unusual all the Answer intended for That is The Person was Extraordinary Some will may be say too Much is said of Him Well! But Others think there is too Little And I know with great Truth More might have been said Some will call it too Flaunting Others too Flat The Author knows of a Sanctuary from all Censures that is a Carelesse Indifferency May be it will find favourable Reception with some if it be not more Vnfortunate in Print than it was in Writ Sure it will not be unwelcome to those to whom that Rare Person was not Vnknown For as in the absence of the Sun these Rayes which are reflected though from the uneven and spotted surface of the Moon are not ungratefull So that shining Soul being now gone from our Horizon This Representation of Him although the Rude Essay of an unpolisht hand will not be disdained except in spight that so good a Them should be ill managed The Author will detain you no longer but leaves the Discourse to your Perusal and Himself to your Charity And so bids you Farewell A DISCOURSE On the Memory of that Rare and truely Virtuous Person Sir Robert Fletcher OF SALTOUN AS a River when cut in many Streams loseth in strength though it abound in Chanels So Mankinde becoming fruitful hath multiplied by those many productions diffusions of Humanity mean while the Vigour of the Rational Soul hath suffered great Decaies and by a daily and lasting Degeneracy is mouldred almost to nothing So that however the Face of the whole Earth be covered by Swarmes of Men Yet most of them are of that Temper that nought but their Shape doth entitle them Such Their Spirits are so emasculate their Strength and Vigour so effoeted That save a Skelete nothing of a Man shall be found amongst whole Droves of Mortals Yet in this Rable there are some Erected Souls who like Saul amongst the People are from the Shoulders upward higher than the Rest. Shall One of these engage in the search of more of his Kind long will he weary himself with fruitlesse labour ere he espy a person truely Virtuous But if He discover any such Suddenly that sight will snatch him to Admiration and anon fix him to Attention With what pleasure will He consider all the Treats of these wel-featured souls Whos 's Beautified looks will quickly conquer the hearts of all true Judges thereof Hence followeth such an Union of Noble Minds that no Force nor Craft can unty the Knot which their entangled Affections cooperating have sublimated beyond the Bond of ordinary friendship into that of Indissoluble love Whence flow the truest Joyes that Frail Mortality is capable of But while this Pair of Souls or rather One enlivning Two Bodies does grasp one another in the closest Embraces and with a Disdainfull Smile laughs at Misfortoun as not within its reach Like a Ship carried by the prosperous gales of a Favourable Wind through smoothed Waves to the desired Harbour Lo of a sudden the sturdy blasts of boisterous storms together with the swelling Billows of an inraged Sea will force those whose hopes had set them beyond danger to their Long Home amidst the Waters Thus Divine Providence not allowing us Repose while here below having reserved our Happinesse for another State when nothing can undoe that entangled Knot in a trice Deaths dividing Sword is sent to cut it The Halfed Soul finding it self fallen from its rest and Felicity into a gulf of misery will fill Heaven and Earth with the doleful resentments of its Desolation and Woe BEing now by a sad Arrest widowed of Him whose Charming Conversation hath so oft relieved and refreshed us by the delights of many a pleasant hour It is but just we pay to his Memory the Tribute of a Tear and besprinkle his Hearse with such fragrant flowers as may make Others relish that wherewith vve have been much glutted yet vvithout hazard of loathing Descend we then into a Charnel-house and in this Mournfull Vault may we see the Ruines of a Noble Fabrick which the Hands of the Great Architect had reared up But novv the Soul is dislodged the House unfurnisht and the Structure fallen to the Ground If to a searching eye there appeared in Him an unsampled glory even while He was in His travelling cloaths Sure now vvhen apparelled with the Garments of Salvation he shines with a lustre bright and orient While he sojourned here on Earth vvith us he knew his Soul was sequestred for Heavens service and hating Sacrilege too much he would not invade Gods Propriety nor bestow it on prophane uses But payed his Love and Obedience in a constant Annuity to Him whose right it was And having the stock His Soul ever in his hands to yeeld up when demanded The terme is now come and the sum payed which was so vast that it hath impoverish'd us all even to the point of being bankrupt for There is a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel A Sublime Mind joyned with a Noble Extraction doth justly entitle one Great Begin we then with the latter of the two If we consult the Lyon of the Tribe of Iudah He will tell us that in true Heraldry the noblest descent is Heavens Pedegree Each of whose off-spring resembleth the Children of a King Titles of Honour among Men are but a mean peice
only by which we must essay to climb up to Heaven Our Heros was behind few Mortals in this atchievment Did we not see an unclouded sweetnesse and serenity so possesse his Looks that easily we might conclude how little his thoughts were disturbed For being ever the same the elevations of Joy did not transport him neither could the depressions of sorrow crush him Hymens pleasures had not so mastered his Soul as to make him neglect the duty he owed his God Neither did the death of his deservedly beloved children imbarasse his Spirit Those who by injuring Him intended his disturbance missed of their Design for he knew that no man could wrong him and that Malice and Revenge only bricole on the Doer without prejudging the Party against whom they are directed For then only doth one suffer when he permits himself into a Passion and Wrongs done us in this world are rather the Occasions than the Causes of our Misfortune Which he was so fully perswaded of that if at any time Passion peeped it did but give opportunity for the exercise of Reason in the quelling so strong an Enemy He wisely considered the Tongue to be that whose intemperate speeches do give Rise Growth and Continuance to Passion It being the Rudder which when dexterously managed holds us in an even and steady Course but if let loose makes us fluctuate and move at randome His thrift of discourse was great but his sparingnesse in Censuring Rebuking Reproaching and Detracting was such as perhaps in all his life he was never accus'd by any yea I believe scarce by himself the most severe Critick upon his ovvn Actions of this fault So studious was he to evite every occasion of affronting his Reason So that justly we may say there is a Prince and a Great Man fallen this day in Israel Well! we have considered Reasons first Triumph over Passion Its next Conquest is the Trading on the cares and concernments of this Life Our Bodies are the Case which contains the Jewel The Shrine for that Stem of Divinity So the Cares and Concernments of the Body must never come in consideration but as Vassals to our Souls But now this order is inverted Are not mens Bodies become the Prisons if not the Tombs of their Souls The Caring for the One is accounted a Debt but Thinking on the other is thought an act of Charity and Benevolence How many impoverished Souls are lodged in Bodies whose cabinets are well stored with Riches Many a Plump body is the Receptacle of an Hunger-starved Mind Me thinks they resemble Egypts Temples whose Outside had a tearing show but when admitted to the interiour recesses of that Idol-house with the wan light of an half extinguish'd Torch they could discern an Ape So what a sight should it be if we could unfold the Plicatures of the Garments wherein many souls are invelopt Within these Cloutes vvould vve see pitifull Brates on whom if one look he will be at a losse whither he shall have Pity Contemn or account them Unworthy of all his thoughts Is it possible that so Sublime a being as the soul of Man made and shaped for high things can be drencht in the dirt of sensuality and luxury or grovel on this Earth Far different from this are the Apprehensions of a transformed Spirit which laboureth to forget its being detained in a Body when it finds it self hailed to and depressed in Earthly Imployments doth with Sorrrow and Pity regrate the distance it is at from the Object of its Ioy and Desire the smart of which the Body will feel in severe Mortifications being denied the wanton Jolleties and unnecessary Flatterings which are craved by a luxurient temper Yea the formerly bewitching pleasures become more bitter than Gall and Wormwood And even Life it self the Preservation whereof carrieth away the Supremacy of our Affections and Desire doth prove a Burden since it detaineth from that which the purified Soul so vehemently longeth for And while the Pilgrimage continueth what time they bestow on humane Affaires is rather Complying with the Providence of God who ordereth every one to their Post and several Imployments in this world than out of any Pleasure they have in it or any Desire of self-satisfaction And when their Occasions and Hours of Divine employment do avocate them they quickly disingage Themselves and their Craving Appetites unsatisfied with every thing beneath God will with an unexpressible satisfaction suck in those comforts that are sweeter to them than the Honey or the Honey comb With how little Flattery what I have been saying may be ascribed to Him who now enjoyeth what he much desired His freedome from Covetousnesse did discover it self in the pain he was at when Crouding Affairs did invade many Portions of his Time Careful was he to rid himself of that Load And though he was dexterous enough so to order his affairs as to throw away nothing Vnnecessarily which may be occasioned mistakes in some Yet these to whom His Soul was known could well discern it flowed from no sordid ground And his frank and large Charity did fully discover of what Mettal he was Yea a Resolution of his which his modesty keeped unknown to all save those who shared in the secreter motions of his Soul never to have encreased his Estate but to offer what improvements he could make of it to God by relieving the Necessities and Wants of the Poor and Needy Such a design I say to those who knew what a Plentiful Fortune he enjoyed and what Children he had will make them believe that he counted the things of this world but Dung. Little did they know of him who know not how regardlesse he was of his Body He was notar for his Temperance sparing in the enjoyments of his lawful pleasures Neither could the weaknesse of his Body extort from him Care and Tendernesse but rather draw from him Pity and Contempt The Society of Drunkards he hated and shunned as much as a Toad Yea so little force had all the Enjoyments of this life although even of these God had bestowed on him a large Share on his Spirit that he was ever desiring to be rid of them all and to be where no Affair could avocate him from that he so much desired That being uncloathed of his vile Body he should be fred from Grosse and Material Conceptions of Spiritual things from the Tribute he owed his Body and from the trouble he was at with businesse but most of all from the dregs of corrupted nature which pinch the Soul and make it long to be with Christ. Some dayes ere he died being desired not to wrong himself with the Apprehensions of Death his Answer was That having exercised himself so long with the thoughts of it He did not apprehend it with fear as an enemy and therefore with Joy did he receive the approaches of it It was the last morning of his life that He said even in the midst of high and furious raving occasioned
Lands designed and marked only in his Conceit But he choosed rather to Mantle over that which he knew by a Shadow than to pretend to that which he had not In fine rare was it to see so much Worth vailed under so much Humility Which keeped him so from the Knowledge of Others but most of all from himself Yet as the Sun beams when stopped in their even course and refracted in a Cloud do appear in that rare Contexture of Light and Shadow the Rainbow so the Vail of Humility though it a little interrupted yet it had not the force to keep up the Glancing light of that shining Soul but rather as a Shadowed Picture appeared he with advantage And as the rare endewments of his Mind did not intoxicate him so the Virtues of his Soul however valued by others were ever counted few and mean by himself For he had Perfection in his eye His Aimes Designs stooping no lower Whence the recurring defects of the daily imperfections which annoyed him in his Pilgrimage represented alwayes himself in the blackest shape disdain could set him in And there was nothing more grating to his Ears than his own praises Is there not then a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel The Soul of Man being by the Power of the Divine Spirit rescued from the bondage of Corruption is brought into the Glorious Liberty of the Sons of God For these staining Tinctures of Passion Lust and Pride are not done of that He should continue as a whited Wall or a Fleece of Wool Nor are these Divels only cast out that the house be empty Sweeped and Garnished No we need not fear so great preparations shall end in Nothing We are uncloathed of our Filthy Garments in lieu whereof we receive Change of Raiment And the Treats of the Image of God are drawn on the Soul Thus the Mind is Transform'd by that Participation of the Divine Nature whereby it is united and knit unto God with that bond of Perfection Love which having consum'd all that fewel of Lust and Vanity which had so long smothered the Divine Life but becoming Victorious it inflameth the whole Pile and offereth it up in one Burnt-offering to God And the Soul being agitated by the Love of God shed abroad in it as by an Active Principle of Life is ever in its Desires and Meditations mounting thither where it hopes to be for ever Our Saviour compared this establishment of the Minde on God to Hungering and Thirsting Which is not caused by Reason but by Life Thus the Supream Exaltation of the Soul is in being so fixed on God that we need not be jogged up to it by Arguments but by a natural and unforced emanation of Spirit to be ever Breathing after and Panting for Communion with God This is to have our Fellowship with the Father and with the Son To place our whole Affiance and Confidence on God who through the Mediation of his Son is become Our Mercifull and Gracious Father To bestow on him the Supremacy of our Love and Affections and by uncessant Motions to be springing towards Him Thus the Soul maugre the Load of its Body that separateth it so far from Heaven will not be delayed of its Glory untill Vnbodied but will be snatching the Summer-fruits even before Harvest come Which though they be not ripened to the delectableness of Angels-food yet that Antepast of Glory will yeeld the Mind such sweet Solaces and Pleasures so Sublime and Highly Divine as will beget a Loathing of the most unmixed Delights Earth can afford For that Original sin that they be of the Earth will sufficiently discredite them The Soul having now found an Object that will both deserve and attract its more Fixed Thoughts With what silent Admiration will it be considering these Divine Adorable Excellencies wherewith the Glorious Lord God is cloathed as with a garment which will sometimes choak them to a stillnesse next to Ecstasie and at other times will burst forth in Halelujahs and Thanksgivings Could we trace the steps and Sacred Soliloquies of a Devout Spirit in those blessed retreats it makes from the Loud disturbances of the World into the Presence of Him who is its Hiding place and strong Habitation whereunto it will continually resort We should see it with delight sum up all the passages of the Power Providence and Goodnesse of God whereby it rouseth it self and all that is in it To blesse his Holy Name and to forget none of his Benefits And if the World offer it self to its View It will quickly say with S. Paul These things that before were gain to me are now become losse through Christ. Yea doubtless I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Iesus Christ my Lord. Yea I will account them but dung that I may win Christ. Thus are the Meditations of God sweet unto it Neither is this only the Holy-dayes Imployment of the Soul For God doth not come to a Soul as a way-faring Man to tarry for a night But he dwelleth and abideth in it The Soul is Acted Moved and Directed by Him in all its goings And when its Station to which God hath commanded it in the world calls it from these immediate Adorations it resolves quickly to return again and leaves the Heart with God in Pawn So that however it may be busied yet all passionate fervour is blunted and quenched And it is so exactly regulated by the Divine Will into which its own is changed that it Cares Desires Joyes and Sorrows for Nothing Earthly But all the Methods and Steps of the Divine Providence are by it judged to be both Wise Good and Just as flowing from an unerring Skill an unchanged Goodnesse and a spotlesse Iustice. Therefore in Patience doth it possesse it self and with an Unreserved Submission equally welcomes as well the Ebbings as the Flowings of Earthly Satisfactions As being none of them of a nature capable of promoting or retarding that Happinesse it expects and desires from God alone Thus with open face as in a Glasse beholding the Glory of the Lord we are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Order of this Discourse doth call for the Applying what hath been spoken to the Glorified Saint that hath now left us In doing whereof several Instances must be disclosed which in his life were unknown to all save to his other self his Friends His Soul was even fraughted with adoring and Magnifying thoughts of his Maker His Frequent and Fervent entertaining himself with Divine Meditations did let us all know wherein he placed his Happinesse Every day many Hours of his Time were spent in the Outer Court of Heaven in those approaches to God No Company was so bewitching as to make him forget him who had inhanced all his desires and delights But when the entertainment of Friends did seem to hinder him from that Imployment yet still He either
found or made a shift to excuse himself for a while that he might converse with his God Which an ingenious Modesty did so contrive that it was not so much as suspected to be done upon design Yea when he was so pressed that he could get no time in the Day stollen He made it up in the Night Often he used to be Eight hours a day in the immediate Service of God beside His diligent observance of the Lords Day which was indeed Singular He used a constant Method in reading Scripture wherein he was much conversant Neither did the Translation satisfie him but He searched the Original carefully For he could quot the New Testament and Psalter as easily in the first Language as most can do in their Mothers Tongue In his daily Reading he did still choose some place which he fixed in his Mind To the Consideration whereof he recollected his Thoughts all that day when ever he found himself at leisure Which he used to say was his Sanctuary whither he retreated from the Persecution of Idle Thoughts Many such Methods used he to wing up His soul to the work of Cherubims ever to behold the Face of his Heavenly Father Yea a Radiant Splendor which possessed his Looks when he returned from his Closet could make us easily discern what joyfull and pleasant work he had been about He used often to separate whole dayes for the Worship of God wherein He denied himself any other Refreshment save what was ministred to his Soul He performed himself the duties of his Family constantly at two returns each day where you might have heard both Reading Singing and Prayer and that with such a true and unaffected Devotion as discovered how little Formality may be in the Observance of Forms The first arrest of that Fatall sicknesse had exhausted the Active Vigour of his Spirit so far that the Keennesse and Fervour of his Soul was somewhat blunted which drew him into Sadnesse judged Melancholy by Beholders For he complained that then when these Attaques of God did alarum him up to a greater diligence He was become more languid and tepid This Trouble was but of short continuance for he found the union of his soul to his God as close as ever though a Mistuned Body could not bear up in a Concord with it The last Lords Day of his Life was he diligent in the search of his Heart and earnest in wrestling with God the Issue whereof was a Quiet and Composed Mind Which was apparant in the Cheerfulnesse of his Spirit which was greater that Night than it had been all the while of his sicknesse Two dayes after he was seized with a spotted Feaver or rather His Sicknesse did evidently discover it self to be such Which having in a sudden disturbed his Fancy what after that came from him like himself was rather Curt though raised and Divine Contemplation than any fixed and well ordered conceptions Often did He pray often did He speak of the Glory of His God and of His Redeemer Yea never mentioned he either but his Soul seemed to go out with Fervour The Last Night of his Life Five times did he direct his desires to God in the words of the Lords Prayer About the Morning His Raving seemed to have taken leave of Him for about a Quarter of an Hour did he with great seriousnesse and in well fitted words call upon the Lord and invocate his aid Neither did he forget His Soveraign the Church His Nation or His Family He had no sooner ended when the Fury of his distemper as if it had given him Truce only for that blessed work did again invade him It was a few hours after that for he scarce spoke any more that the Cords of his Tabernacle begun to be slackened and before we were awar He gave up the Ghost and fell asleep passing into Glory Is there not then a great Man fallen this day in Israel Having thus viewed the Greatnesse of that Soul wherein I do protest no Hyperbole hath been used neither hath ought been said but what I certainly knew to be true Those who are little acquainted with True worth and who Imagine there is no such thing in the World but that it is a Chimaera contrived to amuse and overaw the sons of Adam will may be look on what hath been said as a Flaunting Story But it will gain credit with such as are neither strangers to Virtue nor to Him What was seen of him was so fair and alluring that every one will not stick to believe the Vnseen and Hidden parts of him must be the most Glorious All will believe the Closet of a Palace to exceed the Glory of the Walls But it is a Sad Conclusion to say There is a great Man FALL'N I shall rather invert the words There is a Great Man RAIS'D up The Soul and Body are wreathed into unity by such a Congruity of Life that forgetting the Difference of their Natures they come to be so linked in the embraces one of another as to move joyntly in all their Operations Whence followeth such an Eccho of the One to all the Affections of the Other that they both gain or losse according as their Yoak-fellow is Pleased or Prejudged Which being a Riddle too hard for the crazed Vnderstanding of Man whose sight hath not yet reached the inside of Beings their Natures some take a Compendious way to extricate themselves by saying It is but agitated and subtile Matter that keeps us in Life How well this may be applied to such Agents as are devoid of Ratiocination and to the Plantall and Animal Actions of a Man I am not now to examine But that Cogitation can be an effect of Matter even when it acts on Immaterial Objects and in Self-reflexions will be found a greater difficulty than that they intended to shun And sure in the Conception of a Cogitating Being there is no greater Absurdity than in that of an Extended One After the Soul hath lodged in the Body that space of Pilgrimage and Probation appointed it by God Then the time of its Dissolution draweth nigh When it is to be unfettered then through the dark shades of Death must we passe to Immortality And though there be nothing more dreadfull to them whose Leud and Atheistical life doth fill them with just apprehensions of approaching Miseries Yet the Lord God who can out of the Eater bring forth Meat and out of the Strong give Honey hath ordered that to be the Fore-runner of a Blisse so far elevate beyond the mean and lo apprehensions we Frail Mortals can conceive that the most Fluent Eloquence can do it no Right May we but Imagine what an Amazement a Holy Soul will be struck in when it finds it self of a suddain freed from the Depressions of a Grosse and Terrestrial Body the Allurements of a Debauched Mind the Entisements of a Foolish World the Contagion of Evil Company the Stings of Sicknesse and Pain and from an Unactive
of Pageantry the Blason of whose Coats in Solomons stile is Vanity of vanity all is vanity being a borrowed light as that of the Moon which when it shineth most brightly doth most discover its conspicuous spots Can the Glory of an Ancestour ascribed him many times for an Action in it self not Justifiable and eclipsed rather than decored by the intervention of many degenerating Descents add ought of real worth to any Whence doth the Root of Earthly Honour spring but from Earth What though the Pretenders to Nobility could ascend in their Genealogies to Adam Sure there would they terminate even in red Earth But to be the Son of God is an Original so noble and sublimely Divine that the desire of being accounted such did make the Heathens so to begod themselves that could they but derive their descent from a God they were content to do it by Histories that not only degraded them from the dignity of being such but immersed them into a gulf of Eternal Infamy and imprinted on their Memories such Characters of Disgrace as in succeeding ages could never be defaced In what a Goatish shape do the fables represent their ador'd Iupiter Did not the Grecian Conquerour conquer his Reason by his Pride in conceiting himself the Son of Iupiter Hammon But Christianity hath taught us that as all Souls are first the Breathing of the Divine Spirit So by the power of that same Eternall Spirit vve are born again not of Corruptible Seed but of Incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth for ever The Spirit of this Iust Man now made perfect would stoop to no Meaner state But by a raised and noble Ambition did choose for his Branch Him that growes out of the roots of Iesse Which as it taught him such a Contempt of that which the World calls Honour as being but a Gilded Ratle for Children to play with So it scarce permitted him to bestow on the Worlds greatnesse so much as a Reverent Thought Yea it was to him a Pennance and that none of the least to converse with those to whose state and rank Civility commanded respect to be payed when a Virtuous and Rational Soul did find nothing in their persons that merited esteem This he often complained off as one of the great Toiles of his life to find discourse and entertainment suitable to the mis-shapen and bedwarfed souls of our Gentry Who like Vmbrelloes of true Worth swarme every where and bate fouling Gaming and the Pedling affairs of the world understand nothing either of their Maker or of his Works But how pleased was he in the conversing with and cherishing of such as carried Heavens Liveray and were begotten to the Image of God Those Excellent Ones were They in whom was all his Delight how mean soever their Condition in the World had been In such company Time did seem to fly howbeit at other occasions it seemed to craul like a Snail With Them Midnight was past ere he would believe it to be Late With others the first approaches of Darknesse were taken for Night With those he complained of Night as the Interrupter of his Quiet willing rather to deny his body Rest than his Mind Repose With These he waited for the shadows of the Evening even more than the Watchman doth for the dawning of the Day And therefore it is but just we conclude That There is a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel There is no grosser Soloecism than an Ignoble Prince To be the degenerous brat of an Illustrious Parent is as great a Reproach as the foulest mouth can devise A low and mean Soul set in a high rank is as an Ape upon a Pole Yea as a small Imperfection in an otherwise rare and Well-featured Beauty will be espied by all when the same if not a greater defect would in an Ordinary face passe unregarded And the Stumblings of Princes will be marked in History when the falls of their Subjects will be ingulfed in Oblivion So when a Soul by the dispensation of God comes to be exalted into a Higher region How unseemly will it be for such a one to trip especially considering that thereby the Wicked get occasion to Blaspheme the Name of God and load Virtue with obloquy And the sincere and tender hearted Christian is much scandalized Nor is it only Vnbecoming but questionlesse perilsome seeing the Iealous God by His All-seeing eye observes well the Motions of his own and accounts those errours which by a holy connivance he may wink at in others in Them crimes deserving chastisement The true Grandieur of a Soul then is the Emerging thereof from the sink and Kennel of Passion Interest and Self-love and the fixing of it on God and Divine Objects Passion is a Feaver in the Soul which having agitate the Vigour of the Minde into Fainting Heats maketh the Thoughts the Pulses of the Soul move Quick High and Unequally for Reason being dethroned every Paultry Passion in its tour will usurp the Chair and according to its Imperious Humour make that Faculty lacquey up and down Which in the Strictest Iustice deserveth the Precedency Thus Folly is set in great dignity and Servants are on horses when Princes walk as servants Reason is the Supream Power of a Man on which in Legible Characters is engraven the Image of God And although it be crusted over with a grosse and foeculent Film on which is stamped the visage of the Foul Fiend of Darknesse yet is it much like that of the Artist who imbossed his Masters Name with Plaister but had underneath engraven his Own in Stone knowing that Age and Tempests would wear of the one whereas t' other would weather out all Periods of Time For after the dew of Heaven hath washed of that superscription of Satan then will the goodly and glorious Image of God conspicuously appear in a purified Reason In regard that as that skilfull Statuary did engrave his Name in Pallas Shield with so deep a stroak as could not be defaced while the whole Statue were undone So God did Imprint so lively treates of the Divine Nature on the Soul of Man as the remaines thereof are yet to be seen even in the greatest Monsters of Mankinde which the Earth doth bear But Man since that first fall is so unplum'd and so robt of that gayety which at first did adorn him that all his Faculties are become soft and languide A company of Passions like so many Birds of Prey having divided the dominion of the soul among themselves Reasons first work then is to vindicate her Liberty from the Tyranny of these insulting slaves And even Lame Nature in the unhallowed Heathens hath made strange attempts for the re-enthroning Reason and regaining that undisturbed tranquillity of minde which man was once in possession of But alas Man though mounted on his tiptoes will not reach this fruit of the Tree of Life it hangs too high for him and it is Iacobs ladder
by a Feaver of which he died O my most adorable and glorious Lord God to thee I come and with thee shall I be for ever Who can then blame me when I say There is a Prince and a great Man fallen this day in Israel Reason having made a foul fray among the Passions and trampled the Body underfoot it carrieth on its Conquests and at length Combates it self and Beats down any good opinion it is tempted to have of its Self It fares with many as with those Vapours which being by the Suns active beams agitated into a subtile thinnesse mount up but because they had not layed down their earthinesse reach no further than the Regions of the Air where after being toss'd too and again they fall down in big drops more grosse than when caught up So the Souls of some by the forcible impressions of some heats are caught up from worldly carnal yea and passionate courses But there being no true Renovation of heart they mount no higher than the Aery Regions of Vanity Self-love being the Root of their Actions though they may appear Specious being set of with Canting and Dissimulation yet their depth being sounded prove in effect nothing but profound Venerations payed to the shrines of their adored selves This is the Last Battery of the Enemy of our Salvation Other engines failing he insinuats himself into the more retired Corners of the Soul and by this deadly venome he poisons and leavens the whole Soul making it forget that dependance upon God by which it lives and cease to praise that unbounded Goodnesse to whom it owes more than Seraphims can expresse As also the active vigour of the Soul in every duty of Religion growes remiss when it conceits it self Victorious over all its Enemies This is the Tympany of the Mind which often if not ever proves deadly and irrecoverable But true Greatnesse will quickly evacuate the Mind of all those Tumours by representing as well the Frailties of its Nature as the Miseries of its depraved State The One by remembring it is a Creature started out of nothing by the Omnipotent Power of its Adored Maker The other by discovering how Weak and Effeminate our Souls are become How Short sighted and Dim our Vnderstandings how lame and unactive our Wills How furious and undaunted our Passions As also by reflecting on the great and frequent errours of our Life and our ever recurring imperfections It is by the Like Considerations that Man comes to be undeceived and doth perswade himself that He is an Empty Nothing and so delights in Self-degrading Thoughts and with S. Paul doth Glory in his infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon him It is now time to Apply what hath been said to Him who hath finished his Course and hath obtained the Crown But I suppose all to whom He was not wholly unknown could spare me the labour It were indeed a puzling Question Whither his Worth or his Humility was greatest He took more pains to conceal what he really had than may be the Proudest do to set of what they have not at all His shunning all occasions of any Publick Appearance and his great Silence and Sparingnesse of Discourse which were too well known to insist on yea it were a difficult work to instance unlesse there were produced a Catalogue of all the actions of his Life were pregnant proofs of what hath been said Neither did this nonpareiled Modesty flow from either natural Retirednesse of Temper or the Contempt of Others which makes some retreat from the Societies of Men accounting it below them to converse with Persons beyond whom Self-conceit hath far advanced them No on no such ground He withdrew himself from the too much beaten road of Conversation But he did so distrust himself as to be ever regrating those Imperfections Judged to be in him by none but himself he found depressing his Spirit He talked much of his want of Memory Yet was he well known both in Greek and Hebrew in the Latter especially Neither was he a stranger to the other Oriental Tongues not to mention his perfection in the Latine several Europaean Languages Language being a Heap of words connected by no string of Method People being taught to speak by Custome and not by Philosophy there is nothing that more racks and overcharges the memory A memory then so well twisted as to be able to retain Singled words cannot be thought so treacherous as to let slip Connected things when commanded to such an imployment by Inclination Truth was he was ready enough to forget any Pedling affair but the impression such stuffe could make on a Mind so much alienated from the World was so overly that no wonder it was not lasting Should we also take his Own testimony of himself we should believe his Mind was Shallow and Purblind But a whiles conversation would have forced any to change their opinion He was deeply skill'd in the Mathematicks thogh he was well advanced in years before he began that Study and his distracting affairs did never allow him that Time which an exactness in those Sciences doth require Notwithstanding he was well seen in most of them It was the Science and not the Art in them most pleased him His dexterity in unridling the most Knotty Theorems and Problems was singular His Patience was unwearied So that I stick not to say that had his Conveniency permitted him that Study as much as His Genius and Inclination would have led him to it he had been inferiour to few of his Age. Which many of his Papers would make no hard labour to prove He gave himself also much to Philosophicall Studies but could never satisfie himself with that empty Scelet of Aristotles Philosophy Which being by the Trifling way of Logick digested into some Order hath imposed so long upon the World and hath abused them into an Opinion of their own Great Knowledge when notwithstanding they could never extricate one Difficulty in all Nature and yet they would bear the World in hand that Wisdome shall die with them But was well pleased with the late Ingenious Attempts to unmask Nature And as the Rational Subtility of these Designs delighted him So he was much pleased with the Ingenious Candor of these Mechanical Philosophers and expected Great Things from the Honourable and Truely Royal Society of the Virtuosi in England For he believed That Design to be the strongest Attempt the World had seen to rescue it from Ignorance and Vncertainty He was also a great Friend of Chimistry and being no stranger to it was purposed to have applied himself seriously thereto Hoping by Vulcans Key to have disclosed Nature He had also studied Mechanism and all such things as might improve a Society But the more he knew the more he was perswaded of the Defects of Humane Knowledge Neither was he like these Globes wherein the Author rather than acknowledge his Ignorance will fill up these wast and unknown spaces with