were liable neither wou'd there have been any Place or possible Occasion for Bloody Offerings Expiations or Propitiatory Sacrifices This is a farther Evidence Secondly of our Weakness if we look at the Meanness of the Intention upon which that Usage grew and was encourag'd and That cou'd be no other than the Hope of Appeasing and Gratifying Almighty God by such Bloody Oblations I speak not now of the Reasons why God instituted Sacrifices but of that Notion which plainly appears to have been predominant in the Minds of Men who did not see into the Mysterious End of them which the Generality of the Jews themselves never did and much less cou'd it be expected that the Pagan World shou'd penetrate into it It is true indeed Almighty God in great Grace and Compassion to those more early and ignorant Ages of the World which knew no better did very favourably accept Good Men when they approached him with this sort of Devotion and the Apostle takes particular Notice of his having Respect to Abel and his Offering Heb. xi as the History of the Old Testament does of his testifying that Acceptance by visible Signs in the Case of Noah Abraham and Others There being this Motive to his Mercy that what was done of that kind proceeded from an Intention to serve and honour him and that the Understandings of Men were gross and heavy they were in their Minority and under a Schoolmaster as St. Paul expresses it of the Jewish People but at the same time honest and well-meaning And it is not improbable that this Opinion so universal at That time might represent Sacrifices to them as a Dictate of the Law of Nature and the only proper Method of Divine Worship There was it is confessed another Consideration which rendred Sacrifices very valuable and well-pleasing to God whereby they were made use of as Figures and Representations of that One truly meritorious Sacrifice to be offer'd upon the Altar of the Cross afterwards But this is a Mystery peculiar to the Jewish and Christian Religion And as it is a Common so is it an Excellent and Adorable Instance of the Divine Wisdom to convert what is of Human Institution Natural Usage or of a Corporeal Nature to High and Holy Purposes and make such things as the Ceremonial Law consisted of turn to a Spiritual Account But still This does not by any means infer that God took pleasure in these things as of any real Intrinsick Worth and Good in themselves For even before Grace and Truth set this Matter in its clearest Light by the Gospel the Prophets were not sparing to declare the Contrary and Those among the Jews of more enlightened Understandings saw this perfectly well and acknowledged it even while the Practice of offering them continu'd Psal li. Thus David Thou desirest no Sacrifice else would I give it thee but thou delightest not in Burnt-Offerings Psal xl Burnt-Offering and Sacrifice for Sin hast thou not requir'd And again speaking in the Person of God himself Psal l. I will take no Bullock out of thy House nor He-Goat out of thy Folds They call'd upon Men for Oblations of another kind more Noble and Spiritual more becoming Them to bring and more worthy and fit for a Holy Deity to receive The Sacrifice of God is a Contrite Spirit and the Offering of a pure Heart Mine Ears hast thou opened that I should do thy Will yea thy Law is within my Heart Offer unto God the Sacrifice of Praise and Thanksgiving I will have Mercy and not Sacrifice And many other Passages to the same Purpose And at last to clear this Matter and put it beyond a Doubt the Son of God himself who was Truth and the Teacher of it and who condescended to come into the World that he might disabuse Mankind and rescue them from their Ignorance and Errours hath utterly abolish'd this way of serving God Which he wou'd never have done had there been any Essential Goodness in it which cou'd have recommended it for its own sake to God his Father But when He was come to be the End of the Law and the Universal Propitiation the use of Sacrifices was at an End too John iv 23 24. and then it is They that worship God must worship him in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeketh such to worship him And without Question next to the Extirpating Idolatry This of abolishing Sacrifices is One of the most Glorious Publick Effects One of the best Reformations which Christianity hath wrought in the World And hence it was that Julian the Emperour its most professed most inveterate Enemy in Despight to it offered more Sacrifices than perhaps any other Man ever did and endeavoured to introduce This Way of Worship and Idolatry again as being both directly in Contradiction to the Christian Religion But of This we have spoken sufficiently and therefore let us now take a short View of some of the other considerable Branches of Religion The Blessed Sacraments when Adminished to us in Elements so common and of such mean Esteem as Bread and Wine and Water and not only so but in the very Act of Administration bearing Resemblance to the most Vulgar and Despicable Actions of Life as Wishing Eating and Drinking are plain Memento's of our continual Weaknesses and Wants our Miseries and Pollutions And as the marvellous Efficacy magnifies the Almighty Power and Goodness of God so the Need we have of them should humble us with mortifying Reflections upon our own feeble Condition Thus again Repentance is prescribed as the Necessary the only Remedy for our Spiritual Diseases and 't is plain This Considered in it self is an Act full of Shame and Reproach it upbraids us with our Faults and Follies afflicts our Souls with Grief and sad Remorse and shews us to our Selves in the Worst and most Deformed Figures that can be But however Evil and Uncomely this may seem in it self yet it is Necessary for reconciling us to God and That is enough to reconcile Us to it Another Instance may be taken from Oaths which are indeed Religious Acts when lawfully practised by Reason of the Name of God solemnly invoked in them But yet it is evident that the Common Use and Administration of these is a Scurvy Symptome a most shameful Argument how little Mankind are to be trusted What Monsters of Falshood and Treachery of Errour and Ignorance we are How vilely suspicious and distrustful the Person requiring them is and how liable to Jealousie the Person from whom they are demanded and what a mean Opinion those Law-givers who ordered them had of Mens Honesty and Truth when one's bare Word will not give Satisfaction nd as our Saviour says whatsoever is more than this Matt. V. 37. cometb of Evil. Thus you see not only how Weak and Sickly our Condition is but likewise what sort of Remedies Religion hath found it Necessary to apply for our Cure Since it may be said in some
likewise are the Lungs a soft rare and spongy Substance supple and pliable in their Motions like a pair of Bellows and thus they become the Instruments of Respiration By which the Heart is cool'd with fresh Air the Blood kept in perpetual Agitation the Fumes and Excrements that oppress it are by this means discharg'd and the Voice formed by the help of the Aspera Arteria or Wind-Pipe The Fourth and Last Apartment which answers to that highest Region by way of Eminence call'd Heaven is the Head and this contains the Brain a Substance cold and spongy cover'd over and wrapt up in two Membranes One hard and thick which touches the Skull and is term'd the Dura Mater The Other more gentle and thin contiguous to the former and known by the Name of Pia Mater From the Brain are deriv'd all the Nerves and that Marrow which runs all along through the Back-Bone This Brain is the Seat of the Reasonable Soul the Source of Sense and Motion and of all those Noble Spirits call'd the Animal and extracted from the Vital Spirits which when sent up through the Arteries into the Brain are concocted refin'd wrought off and subtiliz'd by means of an infinite number of small and exceeding fine Arteries which like so many little Threads plaited and interwoven with each other make a sort of Labyrinth or double Net the Rete Mirabile in which the Vital Spirit being kept by perpetual Motion backward and forward is exalted and refin'd till it becomes Animal that is sublimated and spirituous to the last and highest Degree The Outward Parts and such as stand in View are either single or double If single they are placed in the midst as the Nose which serves us in Breathing and Smelling and conveys Comfort and Refreshment to the Brain as it is also useful for the discharge of any Humours which happen to annoy the Head And through this Passage the Air goes in and out both for the Service of the Lungs below and of the Brain above The Mouth which assists us in Speaking and Eating and as the Uses of it are different so are the Parts likewise which qualifie it for those Uses Without there are the Lips Within you have the Tongue extremely nimble in Motion and a nice Distinguisher of Tasts The Teeth to bruise and chew our Meat and prepare it for the Stomach If the Parts of the Head be double and alike they are plac'd collaterally and answer exactly to each other So do the Eyes which like Centinels or Spies are posted at the top of the House for the gaining a more advantageous Prospect These are made up of wonderful variety each hath Three Humours Seven Coats Seven Muscles different Colours and are form'd with infinite Artifice and inexpressible Contrivance They are indeed the noblest and most admirable Parts of any that appear outwardly in the Body Their Beauty their Usefulness the Sprightliness of their Motion their strange Attractive Power in creating Love These are to the Face what the Face is to the rest of the Body the Life and Air of the Countenance it self And in regard they are exceeding tender and nice and valuable therefore provident Nature hath cover'd and fenc'd them in very carefully on all sides with Skins and Lids and Brows and Hair The Ears are near upon the same Level with the Eyes these being a sort of Scouts to the Body and Porters for the Mind they receive report and distinguish Sounds which naturally ascend upward The Approaches and Entries of this Organ of Sense are intricate and crooked full of Windings and Turnings to prevent the Air from rushing in too quick and with too great Violence by which means the Hearing might be extremely impair'd the Organ wounded and strain'd and the Sound more confus'd by its excessive loudness To all these we must add the Hands and Arms by which all manner of Workmanship is perform'd and our Legs and Feet which like Pillars support this wonderful Edifice and which although not of the Trunk and main part of the Body are yet Instruments of such universal Use that the Body can very hardly subsist without them and it wou'd be very ungrateful not to allow These an honourable Mention in this Account whose Labours make Provision for the whole CHAP. IV. THE Body of Man hath several very particular and distinguishing Qualities which are Excellencies peculiar to himself and such as Beasts have no share at all in The first and most remarkable seem to be these that follow Speech an Erect Stature that Form and Port which hath been in so high Esteem among wise Men nay even with the Stoicks the Rigidest and most Abstracted of all Philosophers that they declar'd it more eligible to be a Fool in Human Shape than to be Wise in the Form of a Brute So preferring the advantage of this Frame of Ours before even Wisdom it self and all the Beauties of the Soul without it The Hand which is a Prodigy in Nature and no other Creature not even the Ape it self hath any thing comparable to it the Natural Nakedness and Smoothness of our Skin Laughing and Crying the Sense of being Tickled the Eye-Lash upon the lower Lid of the Eye a visible Navel the Point of the Heart inclining toward the Left-Side the Knee which is said to stand forward in no other Creature whatsoever the Palpitation of the Heart Bleeding at the Nose which you will think very odd when you recollect that Men carry their Heads upright and Beasts hang theirs down toward the Ground Blushing for Shame Looking Pale for Fear Multiplying at all times indifferently not moving their Ears which in other Animals is a signification of their inward Passions But These are sufficiently discovered in Mankind by looking Red or Pale and particular Motions of the Eyes and Nose Others tho' they are not altogether his own and incommunicable yet may be styl'd Peculiar in respect of the Degree and the Advantage he hath above others which partake of them Such are the Number of his Muscles and vast Quantity of Hair upon his Head the Nimbleness and wonderful Variety of Motions in his Limbs and Joynts the great Abundance of the Brain the Largeness of his Bladder the Form of the Foot so very long forward and so short a Heel behind the vast Quantity the Clearness and the Fineness of the Blood the Easiness and Agility of the Tongue the Multitude and unspeakable Variety of his Dreams so extremely above all other Animals that Man alone deserves the Name of a Dreaming Creature the Faculty of Sneezing And to be short the innumerable different Motions of his Eyes and Nose and Lips Some there are that have particular Countenances and Looks Gestures and Motions which Art and Affectation have accustom'd them to and sonle others who have these from Nature They are particular indeed and so distinguish them from other Men but yet they are so Natural that the Persons are not at all sensible of them when they
Creech A Man cannot wrong his Innocence more than thus to stake his Conscience upon every slight Provocation and refer his Honesty to the Arbitration of all Companies he comes into †Perspicuitas argumentatione elevatur When Things are plain of themselves a set Argument does but perplex and confound them Socrates upon his Tryal would not submit to be vindicated either by Himself or by any Other and rather chose to die Silently than accept the Assistance of that Eminent Pleader Lysias in his Defence But the Other Weakness is just opposite to This when a Man of Courage gives himself no Trouble nor takes the least Pains about his own Justification tho' the Charge upon him have gain'd Ground and prepossest many when he despises the Accusation and the Persons that lay it as not worth his Answer or Notice and thinks it would be a Disparagement and a Reflection to engage with them This indeed hath been the Practice of some great and generous Spirits of scipio especially who several times weathered his Point thus with marvellous Constancy and Firmness of Soul But a great many Persons disapprove this Method and take offence at it for they think it proceeds from Haughtiness and Disdain too great a Value of Themselves and want of due Regard for other People That the depending too much upon one's Own Innocence and not submitting to remove Jealousies is ill Treatment Or else this obstinate Silence and Contempt they interpret Consciousness of Guilt Distrust of Justice and want of Ability to justifie one's self effectually Miserable Condition of Mankind in the mean while that when they are suspected and accused have no possible way of giving entire Satisfaction but whether they speak or whether they sit still and hold their Peace whether they do or do not take care to defend their Names from Reproach and sure to incur the Imputation of Weakness and Cowardice We think it a Mark of Courage and advise Men not to be Sollicitous in making Excuses and when they take our Advice we are such Fools to Resent it and complain that they do not think Us worth excusing Themselves to Another Evidence of Weakness is the enslaving our selves to any particular Manner and affecting to be distinguished by some uncommon way of Living This is a vile Effeminacy Niceness and Affectation a Niceness most unbecoming a Man of Honour it renders us ridiculous and disagreeable in Conversation and is highly injurious to our Selves by softening our Minds and making us tender and delicate and unfit to struggle with any Accident which may constrain us to change our Course of Life Besides it is a Reproach not to dare to do or endure what the rest of the Company do Such People are fit for no Place but an Alcove or a Dressing-Room The best Fashion when all is done is to be Negligent and Complying and Hardy if need be to dare and be able to do any thing but to use this Power in such things only as are innocent and good A Man does well to know and observe Rules but not to Enslave himself to them Another Vulgar Folly there is and a very general one Consulting of Books which comes under this Head of Weakness T is the running after foreign Examples in Authors being fond of Quotations allowing no Testimony to have Weight or Credit except it be in Print nor any thing to be True but what is Old and in Books According to this Rule the Press may give Reputation to the greatest Follies Whereas in truth every Day presents us with fresh Instances of Things in no degree inferiour to those more celebrated ones of Antiquity And if we had but the Wit and the Judgment to make good Reflections upon These to cull and collect carefully such as are for our Purpose to examine them curiously and discover all their Beauties the Improvement would be wonderful And every Age would be equal to any of the past the Transactions whereof we so zealously study and admire and to be plain we study and admire them for no other Reason so much as that they have Antiquity and Authors to recommend them This again is an Evidence of Weakness That Men are capable of nothing Extremes except in moderate Proportions Extremes of any kind are what they cannot bear If they are very small and make a despicable Figure we despise and disdain them as not worth our Consideration If they be exceeding great and glorious we are afraid of them admire and take offence at them The Former of these Remarks concerns Men of great Quality and great Judgment The Second is more generally true of meaner Attainments and Circumstances in the World This appears very plain too in our Hearing and Sight Sudden Accident when we are struck all on the sudden with some unexpected and surprizing Accident which seizes our Spirits before we know where we are The Amazements of this kind are sometimes so great as to deprive us of our Speech of our Senses so Virgil describes the thing * Diriguit visu in medio calor ossa reliquit Labitur longo vix tandem tempore fatur Virg. Aen. III. Her curdled Blood runs backward at the sight And pale numb'd Limbs a sudden Trembling shook She stiffens into Statue with the Fright Swoons and at last long Silence hardly broke nay sometimes Life it self hath gone too And This whether the Event were prosperous as that Roman Lady who dy'd for Joy to see her Son safe return'd out of a beaten Army and the Examples of Sophocles and Dionysius the Tyrant Tessifie or whether it be unhappy as Diodorus dy'd upon the Spot for Shame that he was baffled in a Dispute One Instance more I will add which discovers it self Two ways in direct opposition to one another Some Persons are vanquish'd into Mercy by Tears and Submissions and earnest Entreaties and are offended at Firmness and Courage as if this were Sullenness and Obstinacy and Pride Others Acknowledgments and Prayers and Complaints make no manner of Impression upon but Constancy and Resolution wins them The Former of these proceeds no doubt from Weakness and accordingly we find it more incident and common to Mean and Effeminate and Vulgar Souls But the Second it is not so easie to give an account of and yet this Temper is incident to Men of all Conditions One would think it an Argument of a brave and generous Spirit to be wrought upon by Virtue and a generous Manly Behaviour and so no doubt it is if This be done out of a due Veneration for Virtue as Scanderbeg receiv'd a Soldier into Favour for the gallant and obstinate Defence he made against him and as Pompey the whole City of the Mammertines out of the regard he had to Zeno who was one of their Body And as the Emperour Conrade forgave the Duke of Bavaria and the rest of them that were besieged with him for the Bravery of the Women who convey'd them away
after all those wonderful Exploits this was not the least wonderful that he should have the Use of his Understanding so perfect as to call upon God to restore him those Bowels again and so dye This I thought not amiss to hint and let them look both to the Truth of the Story and the Justice of the Commendition who have entitled these Books to an equal Authority with the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament That Instance of the Women under the Tyranny of Antiochus I do not understand for if it refer to those mentioned 2 Macc. VI. 10. they seem to have been thrown headlong from the Wall by the hands of Executioners But if they had done it themselves their Case had been somewhat more Pitiable but not more Imitable than that of Razias Those of Pelagia and Sophronia are indeed extolied but yet St. Jerom who in one place makes the preserving of Chastity an Exception and the only reserved Case from what I quoted out of him just now against Dying by one's own hand in Persecutions says in another place without exception Epist ad Marc. That God receives no Souls who come without his orders Deus non recipit Animas quae se nolente exterunt è corpore And whether this Case of Theirs was a Call notwithstanding the Advocates and Applauses they have found is greatly to be questioned For what is the Chastity God requires Is it not that of the Mind Could not God have restrained even those lascivious Intentions Does not Eusebius in the very same Chapter wherein he relates this Act of Sophronia delivering her self from Maxentius Euseb Eccles Hist. L VIII Ch. XIV particularly tell of a Christian Lady at Alexandria who not being any way to be conquered by Maximin he would not so much as Kill her for her obstinacy nor indeed Force her Person but in the Conflict of Rage and Lust at last only Confiscated her Goods and sent her into Banishment But supposing God had permitted the soul Act yet so long as the Mind was unblemished here had been no Guilt but rather a double Martyrdom If you say they might possibly suspect that they should in the Commission of the Fact have been polluted with sinful Inclinations 'T is easy to Answer That this is but a Fear but a bare Possibility and if an Act be Otherwise and in the general Unlawful the bare avoiding a possible Sin cannot make it lawful to break a Command and by going against God and Nature 1 Cor. X. 13. 2 Cor. XII commit and chuse a certain Sin He has promised That he will not suffer his Servants to be tempted above that they are able and declared that our Weakness can never be so great but that his grace is sufficient for us with many other gracious Promises which it is a great fault in us to distrust even in our greatest Straits and Necessities And to deliver our selves by Methods contrary to his Laws is to distrust them for we are to expect the Assistance of his Grace and the Protection of his Providence in the use of those Means and observance of those Rules he hath given us And therefore I cannot conceive how the fear of falling into Sin only can possibly render that Action Lawful which otherwise and generally speaking is it self a Sin and Unlawful Methinks therefore we should do well in this Case to distinguish with our Saviour in the Parable of the Unjust Steward and as he commended the Wisdom of that Man without approving his Injustice so we may allow all possible Praise to the Gallantry and Constancy of these Female Martyrs without allowing that the Course they took to preserve their Virtue Tom. 1. Front Ducae 628. compared with Comment on Gal. I. 4. was strictly regular and good And thus St. Chrysostom seems to have done who notwithstanding the great Encomium given of Pelagia in one place yet speaks of this Act of dying by one's own hand in very severe Terms in another and declares without exception that the Christians had all such Persons in abhorrence and that they were more guilty before God than any other murderers And some of those Instances which were thought hard to condemn the Vindicators have not well known how to acquit otherwise than by a presumption of a particular Impulse of God which was for that Time and Action a Dispensation to the General Law So St. Augustin of Sampson Spiritus latenter hoc jusserat qui per illum miracula faciebat The same Spirit which wrought Miracles by him gave him a Secret Command to do this thing And Lipsius speaking of these very Women says Monitum aut Jussio Dei hîc quoque praesumenda Lip Manuduc ad Philos Stoic Cap. XXIII That a Command or at least some Instinct and Direction from God is to be presumed in their Case as well as Sampson's and he had St. Augustin's own Authority he says for this presumption All which when duly considered as it will not warrant us to censure these Persons as to their Eternal State so neither will it warrant our Imitating such Actions or arguing from thence in defence of such Behaviour or for the Extenuating the Sin of Self-murther For whatever they might be in Themselves 't is sure they are no Pattern to Us and if God see sit to Allow or the Church to Commend their Zeal it will still become us to observe and beware of the Irregularities of it The Examples which follow of Cities destroying themselves rather than they would lie at the Mercy of the Conquerors whatever appearance they may have of Fortitude and Gallantry yet as to the point of Conscience and Lawfulness they are certainly blameable and fall under the same Censure which is afterwards given of Cato and others Page 294. N. 3 4. The Custom of Marseilles and the Isle of Ceô Valer. Maxim Lib II. Cap. VI. F. 7 8. where Persons willing to Dye made no scruple of doing it having first obtained the Judgment and Approbation of the Senate and by Poison kept on purpose and prepared at the Publick Charge is only a Permission and Allowance and does by no means take off the Guilt and Injustice of making our selves a way except only in that single Point that here the Publick is not injured having expresly consented to the loss of that Member But in all other respects the Fact was Wicked and Abominable and is reported to have had no other foundation than Affliction or Extreme old Age or in general a Weariness of Life Nor will the next Argument hold concerning the Desire of Death for supposing that whatsoever a Man is allowed to desire he is likewise allowed to procure to himself which yet is not universally true yet this Desire it self is faulty when it grows into Impatience and is not content to wait God's methods and God's leisure And there is great difference between meeting Death gladly and running into it between receiving our Release with