are for the sake of others not my self they ripen into Actions that serve the turn of others not my own I only bear the Fruit which others must gather And whatever pleasure I may now feel in a promising Porspect of the Honour and Vertue of my Posterity 't is such a one as that of Moses beholding Canaan at a distance but such a distance that he must never enter into it To conclude whatever Men promise themselves I think them tolerably fortunate if instead of reaping any benefit when dead from their Children their Lives be not stained and disturbed by them extreamly fortunate if they can make them fit to be their Friends and Favourites worthy to share their Pleasures and able to give them some ease in their Troubles thô after all I cannot but think 't is infinitely more eligible to be the Father of many Good Works than many Children to have a Philosophical Friend or two than a numerous Off-spring and to spend my time nobly in cultivating my Mind than in intangling my Life with Cares for those who often will take none for themselves Some have entertained vain Projects of an imaginary Immortality an Immortality which they must owe neither to God nor Nature but to Historians and Poets Painters and Statuaries and to the dying Eccho's of a surviving Memory I mean that which Men seek in Posthumus Fame in Pictures and Statues and Tombs and embalming Carkases all these seem to carry in them some fading shadows of Being and Existence But ah how imaginary a Life is this something that does infinitely less resemble Life and Being than a Dream does Enjoyment Ah vain support of Humane Frailty Ah vain relief of Death If there be any thing in Honour if it be Body or Substance enough to be seen or felt or tasted if it be Reality enough to be any way enjoyed let me possess it while I live it comes too late if it serves only to increase the Pomps of my Funeral or to dress and set off my Sepulchre or to silence the Groans or to wipe off the Tears of my Orphans or my Friends thô this be something I cannot feel any pleasure in the foresight of that Glory which while I strain to gaze upon at distance the Fogs and Mists of Death thicken the Sky the Voice that will speak me great will speak me too Gone and vanished the Statues and Marbles which adorn my Memory will adorn my Grave too and while they express my Image or my Actions will proclaim that all that is now left of me is Rottenness and Ashes All this I talk abstracting from the Considerations of a future Life for how far the Reputation I leave behind may concern my Soul in its state of Separation from the Body whether the Ecchoes of those Praises and Honours bestowed upon my Memory here will reach and please mine Ears in another World I know not nor do I much desire to know for supposing such a Life my Soul must needs have nobler Employment and nobler Pleasure than this can ever give it I must confess if the Reflections of my Light when I am set and gone would be of any use to direct or inflame Posterity I should now take some pleasure in that which 't is hard to perswade me I shall take any in hereafter nor would it be a trifling Satisfaction to me while I lived if I could believe that my Relations or my Friends could receive any Honour or Patronage from me when dead and since some sort of Character I must leave behind since I must in this manner amongst some at least and for a little time survive I had much rather leave behind me perfume than stench I had rather live in Panegyrick and Commendations than in Satyrs and Invectives But after all how lean and miserable a Comfort is this that when I am dead it will be said I once lived and a promiscuous Croud will talk of me and of my Actions what they please some things good some things bad some things true some things false and what is worse yet I must suffer all the Revolutions of Humors and Parties in following Ages these must give my Abilities and Performances their Character and the prevailing Faction must stamp what Estimate they please upon my Memory But by all this I do not mean utterly to condemn the love of Honour nay 't is really to be cherished when it operates rightly and spurs Men on to generous and handsom Actions I love a Charity that is universal and boundless and extends it self to follwing Ages and certainly there is not a nobler Charity than to furnish the World with an Example that may adorn its own Times and enkindle the Emulation of Posterity Nay further I am willing to believe that a gracious God will sum up amongst the Accompts of my Life the influence it has upon the World when I am dead and to raise the Estimate of my Vertue will consider it not simply in it self but with all the happy Effects which it may any way be the occasion of in successive Ages let me then do good and if I can great Actions upon any motive provided it be just and allowable since this will be the blessed Fruit of it But yet it shall be my Business to make sure of my own Immortality if that of my Name will follow let it It shall be my Business to gain the Approbation of God and Angels and if the Praises of this lower World joyn their Harmony and Consent with that above this cannot disoblige me I will with all my power make sure of my Salvation and not despise Fame Great and good men have ever felt some natural Desires of this sort of Immortality Since then this seems to be an Inclination of God's own planting 't is not to be extirpated but rather carefully cherished and cultivated and duly pruned and regulated Having exploded those mistaken Fancies by which Men support themselves against the shortness of Life I will now proceed to treat of the only two ways by which this Evil may be in some measure remedied that is by prolonging the Date and by improving and perfecting the Nature and Essence of Life so that a Man may live much in a little time CHAP. II. Of Lengthning Life Sect. 1. The Fatality of the Period of Life refuted And Objections from Scripture from Astrological Predictions from Divine Prescience answered A sort of Fate admitted Sect. 2. Of the ways of prolonging Life First Cheerfulness of Mind Secondly Health of Body Thirdly The protection of God and Man Sect. 3. Objections against this last Assertion from such Texts as assert the promiscuous Events of Things and from the early Death sometimes of the Righteous Answered UNder this Article I design to prosecute these three Things First To refute the Opinion of a fatal Period of Humane Life A Fancy which has possessed the Multitude and with which the Minds even of such as would seem above it are not seldom
all their Train or Retinue of Passions in the Heart or Soul Now because all Morality consists in the right use of those Blessings which our great and bountiful Author confers upon us therefore in a moral sense the true Life of Man is nothing else but the right use of our whole Nature an active imploying it in its due Functions and Offices a vigorous Exercise of all our Powers and Faculties in a manner suitable to the Dignity and Design to the Frame and Constitution of our Beings To live then in a moral sense is to know and contemplate to love and pursue that which is the true Good of Man this is the Life of the Understanding Will Affections and of the whole Man and whatever acts of ours are not some way or other conversant about Truth and Goodness are not properly Acts of Humane Life but Deviations from it And here I cannot chuse but pause a little to admire and magnifie the infinite Wisdom and Goodness of the Almighty Architect who has contrived an inseparable Connection and necessary Dependance between Life Perfection and Fruition every rational Act every right Use or Exertion of our Natural Powers and Faculties as it is of the Essence of Moral Life so does it contribute to the Improvement and Perfection of our Beings and to the Pleasure and Felicity of our state for Perfection is the Result of such repeated Acts and Pleasure of our entertaining our selves with proper and agreeable Objects Happy man to whom to live improve and enjoy is the same thing who cannot defeat God's Goodness and his own Happiness but by perverting his Nature and depraving his Faculties but by making an ill use or none at all of the Favours and Bounties of God If we examine this Notion of Life more closely and distinctly and resolve this general Account of it into several Particulars we shall easily arrive at a fuller and clearer Comprehension of it First 'T is evident from this Account of Life that it does not consist in Sloth in the meer marriage or cohabitation of Soul and Body in meer Duration or Continuance in this World Solomon indeed out of a natural Abhorrence of Death tells us Truly Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Eccl. 2.7 Something it is if we must call it pleasure 't is but a faint and low one such as all the Irrational Creatures but Bats and Owls and Moles are capable of but according to my Philosophy it can never deserve the Name of Life He that possesses Vital Powers and Faculties is in a Capacity of Life but he only that exerts them Lives To live is not to spend or wast our time but to imploy it 'T is a lamentable History of Life when it can all be summed up in the few Syllables of a Funeral Ring he lived to or rather as it is wont to be expressed he died such a day of the Month such a year of his Age for indeed he lived not at all Life is a meer Dream not only on the account of its shortness but also of its Night and Lethargy when stupid Ignorance confines and dims the Prospect and Sluggishness enfeebles all the powers of the Mind Vigour and Activity Fruition and Enjoyment make up Life without these Life is but an imperfect Embryo a mingled twilight that never will be Day the Images the slothful form of things are faint and obscure like Pictures drawn in watery Colours and weak and imperfect stroaks and vanish as easie as those half Sounds and imperfect Forms which we take in between sleep and waking all their Passions move drowsily and heavily and all their Entertainments have no more relish than abortive Fruit which can never be ripened into Sweetness or Beauty When I have observed any one thus wasting away a whole Life without ever being once well awake in it passing through the World like a heedless Traveller without making any Reflections or Observations without any Design or Purpose beseeming a Man ah thought I is this that Creature for which this great Theater the World was made for which it was so adorned and so enriched Is this the Creature that is the Epitome of the World the top and glory of the visible Creation a little inferiour to Angels and allied to God Is this Machine acted by a moving Flame and by a wise and immortal Spirit Ah! how much is this poor useless stupid thing sunk beneath the Dignity and Design of its Nature How far short is it faln of the Glory to which God had destined it Shall this contemplative thing ever be admitted to Eternal Life who has so wretchedly fooled away this Temporal one Or can Crowns and Kingdoms be reserved for one who has been so ill a Steward of all these Talents God has committed to him No surely I could upon the first thought imagine his sluggish Soul would vanish like those of Brutes or as the Stoicks fancy those of Fools I could easily imagine that it could sleep not as some fancy all Souls do to the Resurrection but to all Eternity But upon better consideration I find this ignorant and incogitant Life is not so innocent as to deserve no worse a Fate For is it a small Crime to live barren and unfruitful endowed with so many Talents to frustrate the design of our Creation to choak and stifle all the Seeds of a Divine Life and Perfection to quench the Grace and Spirit of God In a word is it a small Crime to be false and perfidious to God unjust and injurious to Man No it cannot be and therefore in the parable of our Saviour wherein the last Audit or Day of Accompts is represented the slothful and wicked Servant signifie one and the same thing and must undergo one and the same Sentence Secondly Life cannot consist in Sensuality that is in the meer caressing our Senses or the gratification of our Carnal Appetites The Reasons of this Assertion are evident from the general Notion of Life For first This is not the Exercise of the whole Nature but a part of it and that the inferiour and ignobler too Secondly It is not an Imployment suitable to the Dignity of our Nature First Sensuality imploys only the meaner part of us St. Paul makes mention of the outward and the inward man and seems to make up the whole man of Spirit Soul and Body and some both Divines and Philosophers of no small note both Modern and Ancient have taught that there are two distinct Souls in man a Sensitive and a Rational one if this be so the Sensualist thô he seem fond of Life does foolishly contemn the better half of it and as much a Slave to Pleasure as he is he chuses to drink only the Dregs and lets the pure Streams of sprightly and delicious Life pass by untasted for if there be a Sensitive and Rational Soul there must be a Sensitive and a Rational Life too distinct and different from one another
and one as much elevated above the other as are the Principles they flow from But whether this be so or no does not import much for it is plain that Life whatever it be is like Seed which according to the different Soyl it is sown in produces Fruit more or less rich and succulent more or less luscious and beautiful here it sprouts forth like the seven poor and lean there like the seven plump and rich Ears of Corn in Pharaoh's Dream and should it by way of fiction be supposed that one and the same Soul did communicate Life to Men Beasts and Vegetables however Life in each would be equal in the dignity of its Original it would vastly differ in its Effects and Operations so whether Life in Man flow from one or two distinct Principles it is evident that its Price and Dignity varies according to the different Powers and Faculties which it moves and animates and by consequence that Life which displays it self in the acts of our Rational Part will be as different from that which consists in Sensation and the Motions of Bodily Appetites as is the Light that glitters in a Diamond from that which faintly imitates it in a Pebble the more numerous and the more exquisite our Faculties the vaster is the Empire of Life and the more delicate and charming all its Functions and Operations How evident is this in all the Organs and Senses of the Body Let Darkness invade the Eye and Deafness the Ear and then within what narrow and scanty Bounds is the bodily Life reduced How few and ignoble are the Vital Acts and Operations of the Body How vile and contemptible are all the Fruits or Instances of a sensitive Life If then there be no Sense or Organ of the Body superfluous can we think the rational Soul it self can be so If there be no Power no Capacity of a sensitive Soul by which Life is not enlarged or enriched must we not needs conclude That to extinguish the Immortal Spirit within us and as it were to discard all its Powers and Faculties must needs be to impoverish mutilate and stifle it since I have a Soul as well as Body since the one is as capable of conversing with God and Heaven with Truth and Moral Goodness and Perfection as the other is of conversing with this World of visible Objects I cannot but conclude That to be destitute of Knowledge and Faith of Hope and Love is more injurious to the true Life of Man than to be Deaf or Blind that Stupidity or Lethargy in the Soul such as renders it altogether incapable of rational Pleasure is as inconsistent with the true Life of Man as Lethargy or a dead Palsie in the Body can be and to be excluded from Commerce with the invisible World is as fatal to it as to be debarred the visible one From all this 't is evident that whether we consider Life with respect to its Excellence and Dignity or to its Enlargement and Extension Sensuality is extreamly injurious to it in both respects so far doth it debase and contract it that I may boldly conclude to place Life in Sensuality is to renounce the much more valuable and delightful part of it to banish our selves the much better World and to rob our selves of a thousand Joys and Pleasures which we might reap from the rational Powers and Faculties that is the noblest Capacities and Endowments of our Nature Thô this be abundantly enough to evince that Life consists not in Sensuality yet this being of the highest Importance to Humane Happiness I will proceed to the second Argument against it that is Secondly It is not consonant to the Dignity of Humane Nature or which is all one to the Design of our Beings conspicuous in our Frame and Constitution who that ever considered what Sensuality was how narrow the extent of Sense how mean and brutish the Pleasure that terminates in it what a Corruption and Degeneracy it ends in Who I say that has ever considered these and a thousand things more can believe that Sensuality is an Employment worthy of Man Is this the Business of a vast and comprehensive mind Is this consistent with ambitious Desires of Immortality with unquenchable Thirst of Truth with a Capacity of discovering Spiritual Excellencies and Moral Beauties and Perfections Was it for this we were endowed with Propensions to worship and adore a Deity What can be as much as fancied the use of Wisdom Magnanimity Conscience Sagacity Caution Fear Foresight and anxious Enquiries into future Things and Times if Sensuality had been the only Employment designed Man how much more fit had we been formed for this end if there had been in us no Reason to check and controul us no Conscience that could fill us with regret for the past or fear for the Future no Wisdom that could teach us that there were any thing above us nor greatness of mind that could reproach us for stooping to any thing below us Thirdly 'T is almost superfluous here to add That Life consists not in Worldliness or Devilishness as to the former of these by which I mean the Cares and Pursuits of the World 't is plain that to employ our Time or Faculties in this alone is not to Live but at best to provide for Life Necessity may sometimes subject us to the drudgery and slavery of the World but a voluntary Choice never should I know no other difference between a mean Fortune and a great one than this that the great one sets a Man above those Cares and Toils which the mean one forces him to submit to that the one puts the fortunate Man into the immediate possession of all the Means and Instruments of Life Improvement and Fruition and of Leasure and Opportunity to make use of them but the latter obliges the less fortunate Man to purchase these Advantages with Toil and Sweat Sollicitude and Care 't is therefore an unpardonable wilfulness or blindness whenever that Vassalage which is the Infelicity of the mean Man is the choice of the rich and fortunate one Nor is it a more pardonable Error in any who continue the drudgey and care when the necessity is over and voluntarily suffer all the disadvantages of a narrow Fortune even when they have attained to a plentiful one who never think it time to begin to Live or to enjoy the Success of their Cares and Diligence this is an Absurdity as gross as his who after he has plowed and sowed should refuse to reap or his who having with much cost and labour furnished out a plentiful Table should not at length find in his heart to fall too and eat Life then consists not in the abundance of the things which a man possesses much less in the vexation or toil of acquiring securing or increasing them which is that I intend by Worldliness but least of all can Life consist in Devilishness that is Wrath Strife Revenge Pride and such like this cannot be
for 't is a miserable thing to see how through the simplicity and weakness of some and the subtlety and cunning of others Laws which should be the Fences and Bulwarks of the People are often made only their Chains and Fetters and those publick and solemn Ties which were designed to strengthen and fortifie the Constitution become the most fatal Engines of undermining and subverting it I have observed many who would be excellent Persons in a regular and calm state of Affairs that are miserably perplexed and at a loss or wretchedly abused or imposed upon in a disordered and unsettled one like a Person of my Acquaintance who rides well in inclosed and narrow Roads but her Brains begin to swim and her heart to fail her on Downs and Plains After all that I may not seem to be treating rather of Speculation than Action and to have proposed such an Extension of Knowledge as if I were recommending rather a Life of Study than of Business I must put you in mind that the design of this sort of Learning ought to be to make men Wise not Subtle Judicious not Disputative That Curiosity or Diligence in Matters minute or subtle has more in it of amusement than use and that to lay the Foundation too deep and broad does seldom quit the cost and in one word it seems to me to be in Policy as in Religion he is the most prudent who best understands the particular Laws or Precepts of his particular Station as he is the most religious who is best learned not in the universal Scheme of Theology but the regulation of his own Affections and the conduct of his own Life But in vain does he study Things who knows not Men for Man is the Instrument of Power and Policy and whoever knows how to manage and gain an Ascendant over him is the most considerable in his Country and able to do the greatest mischief or the greatest good But when I talk of knowing Men I mean not only such a knowledge of particular Persons as may instruct you what to hope or what to fear from them what imployments or trusts they are fit or unfit for and in a word who are proper or improper Instruments in different Affairs Times and Circumstances who are fit to be the Partners of your Pleasures and Diversions who of your Confidences and Secrets and such like but also the knowledge of Humane Nature to be thoroughly read in all the Springs and Resorts of Human Actions in all the various Passions and Diseases of the mind of Man with all their Causes and Cures and to be able to distinguish the genuine and natural from the acquired and artificial Person and because not simple Persons only but Times and Ages Nations Cities and lesser Bodies and Societies have their particular Temper and Genius these must not be neglected neither This is the Knowledge which together with a dexterous use and application of it is the very life and soul of worldly Prudence and makes up the beginning middle and end of true Policy but after all both with respect to the Publick and a Man 's own Good that ought to be a Rule for the Man of Business which St. Paul prescribes for a Bishop Let him first learn to rule his own House well He that will be truly wise should know himself first e're he goes about to know the World and begin the practise of his Politicks in his own Family and in the settlement and due administration of his Domestick Affairs in which if he cannot succeed I must confess I cannot see what Encouragement either Prince or People can have to confide in such a one for the disorders or dissipations of a private Fortune are very ominous Presages of a Mal-administration of publick Trust Nor can I see what can induce such a Man to undertake it but the meer hopes of repairing his private Dilapidations with the Stones and Timber of the publick But after all how necessary soever I account Knowledge in a Gentleman ingaged in an Active Station yet I cannot but observe that whether we regard the Publick or the Private Wickedness has ever been more fatal and dishonourable to both than Ignorance and all Trusts have suffered more in the hands of the false and the base than of the unfit and unsufficient Therefore Secondly The Gentleman ought to be enriched with Vertues especially those which become his Rank and Station Knowledge is but the Seed of Vertue and like that it only rots and putrifies if it grow not up into excellent Habits and bring not forth the Fruits of vertuous Actions There is scarce any Station which does not require a particular Vertue either to discharge or adorn it one Patience another Courage a third Vigilance and so on there being scarce any Office or Business which is not liable to some particular Inconveniencies and Temptations But it being impossible for me to prosecute all these I will only insist on two or three which are essential to all true Greatness and Honour and if I am not much mistaken to a happy and prosperous dispatch of all Affairs I am sure to the Security and Felicity of the Publick and Private these are Integrity Magnanimity Humanity First Integrity By Integrity I mean two things Justice and Truth The first to regulate our Actions the second our Words Nor do I take Justice in a beggerly barretting Sense as if the Gentleman had acquitted himself of a due well enough if there were any plausible pretence to excuse a Violation or Omission of it as if he were to regard more what the Law could compel than what Honour did oblige him to and by Honour I mean the Testimony of his own Conscience both concerning his diligent and impartial Enquiries after the right and sincerity in pursuing it for I would not have him appear to do right rather out of the fear of Infamy than love of Vertue The word of a Gentleman ought to be fixed and unmoveable as Fate sacred and inviolable as the Altar Contracts and Evidences and Seals and Oaths were devised to tye Fools and Knaves and Cowards Honour and Conscience are the more firm and sacred ties of Gentlemen Nor must this Honour extend only to private Dealings but much more to publick in which good God! how comely how noble is it to see Integrity triumphing over Interest and Passion To see a great Man preferring Truth and Justice to the favour or menaces of Princes and readily quitting all Interest and all Parties to support the publick Safety and Honour or fall with it But as Heroick as I would have the Gentleman I would not have him vain I would not have him led or imposed upon by empty Noise and Names I would have him love a good Name but much more a good Conscience for I would have him as Judicious as Resolved as Bright and Luminous as Brave and Inflexible for I admire not an Integrity that bids defiance to Prudence and right Reason
I here begin with Life and dividing this Book into three Sections I will in the first discourse of the true Notion of Humane Life In the second of the right Conduct or Regulation of the two different kinds of Life Active and Contemplative In the third of the right husbanding Humane Life by prolonging and improving it SECT I. Of the True Notion of Life CHAP. I. Life a great Blessing in it self Proves a great Evil to some And why Happiness perfect only in Heaven THô Life render us capable of Pain as well as Pleasure yet has it ever been valued as the richest Blessing the Love of it is the earliest and the strongest Principle in us it moves the Infant before he knows how to rate the Pleasures of Life or can apprehend any Evil in Death it grows up to strength and maturity in Man and is the Soveraign Passion in him to which all the rest pay homage Skin for skin and all that a man has will he give for his Life Age does very little diminish it and Misery it self cannot extinguish it Nor does this Passion want the suffrage of the wisest and the greatest men or the approbation of God for one chief design of Society and Government of Laws and Arms is the protection of Life and God who best understood the bent of Humane Nature has proposed as the biggest Blessing and powerfullest Motive to Obedience a long Life I examine not now what it farther prefigured under the Old Testament and an eternal one under the New And for all this there is plain reason for Life if it be not when rightly understood Happiness it self yet is it surely the Foundation of it and the Foundation in a Building if it be not as beautiful as upper Stories yet is it ever as necessary I wonder not therefore that the Sentence of Death shook the Piety of Hezekiah and the Courage of Saul so that the one wept sore and the other fell to the ground But to all this will it not be objected Alas How many are there who all their days are no more sensible of the good of Life than of the Pleasures and Repasts of a Dream who being come to Threescore years and ten that is to dye do not yet understand what it is to live ah how many which is yet worse to whom Life is a burden and yet Death a terror who when they are to give back the Breath of Life have just reason to wish they had never received it and to curse the day that they were born And do not Elijah Job Solomon Jeremy Esdras and many others great and good men talk of Life at a different rate from what I here do and represent it to us under another Notion and quite contrary Character Better is the day of death than the day of ones birth Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night wherein it was said there is a man-child conceived The Reflection of Esdras on the common misery of Mankind has as much weight and sense as Job's on his own has passion For what profit is it for men now in this present time to live in heaviness and after death to look for punishment These and such like Passages we meet with every where which seem to give us no very taking Idea of Life To all this I answer 'T is with Life as with all other Blessings the right use of it is our happiness the abuse of it our misery There is nothing in the nature of the thing that implies evil or trouble nor has it any necessary and inevitable tendency to it We must not therefore estimate a Blessing by the mischief it occasions such as pervert and abuse it nor by the Complaints which Humane Frailty sometimes forces from wise and good men in a melancholy fit or finally by the Reflections they sometimes make not on the intrinsick worth or natural tendency of Life but on the Evils which flow from the Corruption or Deprivation of it 'T is true when all is said Heaven is the proper Region of Happiness there it dwells in its glory and majesty in all its fulness and excellence but what then because Perfection does properly belong to Heaven is there no Vertue upon Earth because all things are in their maturity and consummation there shall we deny that there is any sweetness or beauty here Just so must we think of the happiness of this in comparison of that of another world it is here in its Infancy we do slumber and are scarcely ever fully awake we see little penetrate and comprehend less and we move very feebly and unsteadily but all this while we grow up to strength we advance towards perfection our Joynts grow firmer our Stature increases our Understanding dawns towards day and our Affections are gradually animated with a more generous and lasting heat so that all this while this infant state of Happiness is pleasant and promising and every step in the whole progress towards Perfection presents us with fresh Beauties and Delights but I know no body so fantastick as to despise the present Life because it is not equal to that above and he that thinks there is none above sets the more value on this because he has nothing more or further to expect I will not therefore spend any more time in endeavouring to prove Life a valuable Blessing but rather proceed to show how every man may really make it such to himself which I think I cannot more compendiously do than by stating the true Notion of Humane Life for as our Misery flows from the abuse and our Happiness from the right use of Life so does the abuse from false and the right use from true Notions of it CHAP. II. Life what in a natural sense What in a moral Life Perfection and Enjoyment inseparably united More particularly Life consists not in Sloth Sensuality Worldliness Devilishness but in the Regulation of all our Actions according to right Reason LIFE may be considered either in a Natural or Moral Sense in the former acceptation what it is is an Enquiry very abstruse and intricate like the Egyptian Nile thô its Streams be visible to every Eye its Source or Fountain is concealed or like Grace thô we feel its Energy and taste its Fruits yet we cannot discover and define its Essence but to carry our discovery thus far is accuracy enough in Moral Discourses whose end is not Speculation but Happiness Life then whatever it be in the Fountain and Essence as far as we can discern it is nothing else but that force and vigour which moves and acts the Man and to live speaking in a natural sense is to exert the Powers and Faculties of Nature according to which account of Life 't is capable of as many Notions as are the different Offices it performs 't is Sense and Motion in the Body 't is Perception and Fancy in the Imagination 't is Knowledge in the Understanding and Love and Hate with
the Bed ill made when the cause of my uneasiness is in the Body And lastly when I have reduced the Evil to its own natural size generally 't is of such a Pigmy Dwarfish growth that I can securely slight it I can master it with very little trouble and industry or at worst with a very little patience and that I may not be wanting here I look upon it as a Task I am born to as an Inconvenience that I can no more shun than any natural Defects in my Body or my Mind or than I can the Cares and Fatigues of my Calling Thirdly I labour above all things to fill my Soul with great and ravishing Pleasures to inflame it with a generous Ambition and in one word to possess it with that habitual Poverty of Spirit Meekness Purity Charity commended to his Disciples by our Lord and Master that I am generally above the buz and fluttering of these rather Impertinences than Evils of Humane Life and do often suffer them without being sensible of them but I can never often enough put the World in mind of the vast difference there is between the fits and habits of these Vertues What we could do in a pious humour that we should always do were but the weak Impression once converted into Nature the short-liv'd Passion changed into steady habit but 't is high time to pursue my Design I am almost afraid I dwell so long upon a Head that the most pertinent Parts of my Discourse may now and then look like Digression The next thing to be considered after the Cheerfulness of the Mind is Secondly The Health of the Body Life does so apparently depend on this that in the vulgar Notion it signifies much the same thing 'T is notorious Life decays and expires with the health and strength of the Body and when it is protracted after these are gone it scarce deserves the Name of Life any more than the Noise of an ill-strung and ill-tuned Instrument does that of Musick But I need not teach any Body the value of Health or press them to the preservation of the Body I should be sufficiently obliging to the World if I could teach it any Art by which they might be restored to that Blessing which it enjoyed before the Flood a long Life of many hundreds of years But I know no Art that can raise Nature above its own Laws or retrieve its Youth if it be now in its Decrepitude One thing I know that we too commonly debauch and corrupt Nature first and then load her with our Reproaches and Accusations we should undoubtedly live much longer and this Life would be more healthy and verdant that is more vital than it is did we but observe the dictates of Religion the Laws of Vertue and not prefer before them those of Lust and Fancy How much soever Men complain of the shortness of Life 't is little to be doubted but that most Men do notwithstanding shorten it themselves by some Crime or Error or other If we could consult the sickly crasie part of Mankind I mean such as are so in the middle or almost beginning of their years and demand of them what blasted their Beauty and impaired their Strength what thus violated and contaminated their Nature we should soon be resolved to what Original their Diseases were owing if at least their shame and blushes would give them leave to inform us And if we should endeavour to trace the Deaths of most of those who are gone hence before their time back to their first Cause I do not think but that our search would soon end in some Vice or Folly or other this Man drank too much the other too much indulged his Appetite one was devoted to his Lust and another putrified in his Sloth all of them in our common phrase did live too fast but in truth and propriety of Speech died too fast for since Life is nothing else but acting by Reason every Deviation from it is an Approach towards Death But to proceed 'T is not unusual to see Pride kill one Passion another Avarice and Ambition a third while to gratifie these Affections the Body is either exposed to dangers or worn out by labour Now if we can generally find the Causes of most early Deaths in Mens Vices when so little of other Mens Lives comes to our knowledge what think you should we not be able to discover if we could enter into the Retirements and penetrate all the Secrets of Mankind how many hidden Passions do gnaw the Heart how many secret Sins do waste and consume the Strength where not only Concealment excludes the Eye but a show of probity nay a real and eminent practice of some particular Vertue excludes even Suspition and Jealousie If then Immorality do often contract the term of Life 't is evident what is to be prescribed for the prolonging it Religion or Vertue is the best Physick It has often mended an ill Constitution but never spoiled a good one When did ever Chastity impoverish the Body or deflour the Face when did ever Temperance inflame the Blood or oppress the Spirits when did ever Industry or Vigilance four the Humours and enfeeble the Nerves No Crudities no Plethories no Obstructions no Assidities no Stagnations Extravasations and I know not what hard Names and harder Things derive themselves from Vertue or Religion 'T is true a Man may be Righteous over-much he may entitle his Folly his Melancholy his particular Fancy or his particular Completion or Constitution Religion and this may prove mischievous to him to his health to his strength but then this is not the fault of Religion but the Man and to speak properly this is not Righteousness nor Religion thô it be called so but it is Fancy and Folly or an ill Constitution disguised under the garb and the meen of Religion Vertue then is the most probable way to a long Life or if not so at least to a more comfortable and honourable Death for where an early Death is the Result of a Providence not a Crime we must needs meet it with less Amazement our selves and our Friends behold it with less Regret and Affliction Thirdly The third way of prolonging Life is to engage the Providence of God in its Preservation If all the Promises God has made the Vertues of a long Life did really signifie nothing I cannot see how we could put up any Request to God relating to Temporal Protection with Faith or Fervor or as much as Sincerity but if they signifie any thing then surely they must signifie that his Providence is actively imployed for the preservation of vertuous Men And how great a Security is this What can be impossible to him who is the Governour and Creator of the World in whose disposal all created Means are and in whose Power it is if these be unsufficient to create new ones To him whose unerring Laws can never miss of those ends he aims at or if they could